General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What are your thoughts about institutionalizing drug abusers and the mentally ill? [View all]backscatter712
(26,355 posts)There are lots of mentally ill people who have been helped greatly with therapy and medication, and do just fine in normal society.
Even addicts to hard-core opiates or stimulants can live normal lives if they were given access to injection clinics. Give them the opportunity to break the addiction, but if they can't do that, then I'm for giving them maintenance doses under medical supervision.
Injection clinics have been tried in the UK, Switzerland, Canada, and they work! Crime dries up, the addicts, though still shooting up, get clean needles and pharmaceutically pure drugs in controlled doses, and they can hold down jobs and be productive members of society.
I'd say keep institutionalization as an option, but only as a last resort. What these people need is in-community support. Injection clinics for people with addictions, community-based mental health care and medication for those with other mental illnesses. Most of the time, if they get that kind of support, they'll be just fine. The problem is they don't get that support. They just get dumped on the streets with no access to proper care.