Well first let me give credit to your wife. She manages a difficult task. This does open a broader question about the best way to address mental illness. Obviously the approach from Occupy Madison which simply places the homeless in isolated small shelters without providing the needed mental health services is not the route to go.
Thank you, I kinda partial to her Agreed, there's the immediate need of food and shelter, but that does not address the underlying issues for many. There are treatment options for those in need but resources are limited. And your hands are tied most of the times when a person really needs help but is unwilling to stay.
Did Reagan’s Crazy Mental Health Policies Cause Today’s Homelessness? When I ask my mental health colleagues about this, the one political figure that typically comes up is former President Ronald Reagan. It’s like an urban legend in our field. People say the reason so many people with mental illness are homeless or in jail—one-third of all homeless individuals and half of all people behind bars—is because of President Reagan. Really? What did he do? Let all of the mentally ill patients loose? Well, yes, that’s exactly what they say he did. Over 30 years ago, when Reagan was elected President in 1980, he discarded a law proposed by his predecessor that would have continued funding federal community mental health centers. This basically eliminated services for people struggling with mental illness. He made similar decisions while he was the governor of California, releasing more than half of the state’s mental hospital patients and passing a law that abolished involuntary hospitalization of people struggling with mental illness. This started a national trend of de-institutionalization. In other words, if you are struggling with mental illness, we can only help you if you ask for it. http://www.povertyinsights.org/2013...al-health-policies-cause-todays-homelessness/
Strangely enough the de-institutionalization trend started when all the liberals claimed that institutions for the mentally ill were a terrible thing. The liberals also demanded an end to involuntary commitment to hospitals and institutions, and stated the patients should all have local treatment options. The obvious example of this in North Carolina is the Dorothy Dix mental hospital which was closed after a long campaign by liberals in our state with support from leading left papers such as the Raleigh News & Observer The end result was the Democratic legislature and governor shut Dorothy Dix mental hospital down - a process that took years and involved selling off the land & moving patients to other "regional" locations all the way until 2012. Trying to blame Reagan for a trend of shutting down mental hospitals in the U.S. is absurd. This was driven by both Democrats and Republicans. The reality is that liberals were leaders in demanding the mental hospitals be shut down and the Republicans were more than happy to oblige. Bio of Dorothy Dix - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Dix Dorothy Dix Hospital history - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Dix_Hospital
exactly... if you spend a moment interacting with people in the mental health industry, they will tell you the goal was to end the institutions and get the people back into small home situations in the community. now the issue for the community is that not too many people want these small homes (depending on the level of disability) next door to their own, especially in neighborhoods with a lot of kids.
Very interesting thread. This demonstrates that positive outcome is actually possible. Some could have been starting to lose faith.
As "possible" has been demonstrated : what escuses are other towns coming up with to not create this same type of miracles in their own cities? Anybody has found out the escuses ?
As for excuses, they stem from the rightie hope that these people would simply die (along with the poor, the elderly, etc). However, those with a more compassionate nature are accomplishing things in small steps: http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/let-em-all-die.287554/page-3#post-4052724 http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/ending-homelessness/proven-solutions/
It is interesting to note that most homeless advocacy groups strongly oppose what the Occupy Madison group did with their midget houses. (as outlined in your post) http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/let-em-all-die.287554/page-3#post-4052724