Deinstitutionalization: The Transformative Possibilities
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Deinstitutionalization: The Transformative Possibilities
“Approximately 4.5 million Americans today suffer from either schizophrenia and/or manic-depressive disorder. The National Advisory of Mental Health Council estimates that about 40 percent of these people are not receiving treatment on any given day” states Dr. E. Fuller Torrey (qtd. in Consequences of Not Treating Mentally Ill). Often, the process of deinstitutionalization has many effects to it that can lead these patients back into victimization from their illness. The federal government started funding construction of public treatment units in 1963 when the Community Mental Health Act was signed by John F. Kennedy. In 1965, Medicaid being passed, states provided the cultivation…show more content… 16 percent of nearly 300,000 individuals in jail, are those who suffer with untreated, harsh, psychological illnesses. Over 50 percent inmates imprisoned, are those incarcerated for a drug offense; a majority of those inmates are in prison due to the display of the symptoms originating from their lack of medication to treat their illness. Characteristics such as being belligerent, delirious, or frustrated are common because inmates feel disorganized due to the unfamiliar care. “Inmates with mental illnesses are more likely than other to be held in solitary confinement, and many are raped, commit suicide, or hurt themselves” (Ana Swanson, A shocking number of mentally ill Americans end up in prison instead of treatment). A patient being treated in a new way or place can lead them to feel anger, often proceeding to…show more content… By the late 1980s relatively 750,000 patients suffering with a chronic mental illness had been arranged in a nursing facility; the statistics are only deteriorating. 89 percent of older patients moved into a facility with the provision of general care. The Pilgrim State Hospital in New York now has a bed capacity of approximately 650, while in 1954, the census of the hospital reached its pinnacle of 13,875 patients. The beds of many psychiatric institutions have been demolished since 1960 and the decrease in availability of care for patients is hailing from the federal government only paying for the treatment they are willing to rather than that of which is needed. In 1965 Medicaid payments for patients who attend any form of an institution with the intentions of treating the mentally ill was prohibited, with the purpose of cultivating deinstitutionalization and to deviate the expenses back to the states. The cost of receiving more general treatment in a hospital or nursing home is nearly $200 per day more than the cost of attending a public psychiatric