The beginning of the end ...

[UpInArms]

Ronald Reagan’s shameful legacy: Violence, the homeless, mental illness

In November 1980, Republican Ronald Reagan overwhelmingly defeated Jimmy Carter, who received less than 42% of the popular vote, for president. Republicans took control of the Senate (53 to 46), the first time they had dominated either chamber since 1954. Although the House remained under Democratic control (243 to 192), their margin was actually much slimmer, because many southern “boll weevil” Democrats voted with the Republicans.

One month prior to the election, President Carter had signed the Mental Health Systems Act, which had proposed to continue the federal community mental health centers program, although with some additional state involvement. Consistent with the report of the Carter Commission, the act also included a provision for federal grants “for projects for the prevention of mental illness and the promotion of positive mental health,” an indication of how little learning had taken place among the Carter Commission members and professionals at NIMH. With President Reagan and the Republicans taking over, the Mental Health Systems Act was discarded before the ink had dried and the CMHC funds were simply block granted to the states. The CMHC program had not only died but been buried as well. An autopsy could have listed the cause of death as naiveté complicated by grandiosity.

President Reagan never understood mental illness. Like Richard Nixon, he was a product of the Southern California culture that associated psychiatry with Communism. Two months after taking office, Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, a young man with untreated schizophrenia. Two years later, Reagan called Dr. Roger Peele, then director of St. Elizabeths Hospital, where Hinckley was being treated, and tried to arrange to meet with Hinckley, so that Reagan could forgive him. Peele tactfully told the president that this was not a good idea. Reagan was also exposed to the consequences of untreated mental illness through the two sons of Roy Miller, his personal tax advisor. Both sons developed schizophrenia; one committed suicide in 1981, and the other killed his mother in 1983. Despite such personal exposure, Reagan never exhibited any interest in the need for research or better treatment for serious mental illness.

HOW RELEASE OF MENTAL PATIENTS BEGAN

The legislation sought to create a nationwide network of locally based mental health centers which, rather than large state hospitals, would be the main source of treatment. The center concept was aided by Federal funds for four and a half years, after which it was hoped that the states and local governments would assume responsibility.

''We knew that there were not enough resources in the community to do the whole job, so that some people would be in the streets facing society head on and questions would be raised about the necessity to send them back to the state hospitals,'' Dr. Brown said.

But, he continued, ''It happened much faster than we foresaw.'' The discharge of mental patients was accelerated in the late 1960's and early 1970's in some states as a result of a series of court decisions that limited the commitment powers of state and local officials.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. K & R

[BigmanPigman]

2. My mother brings this up all the time.

She and my grandmother worked in mental hospitals in Phila. My mom said that when Reagun made this decision, very ill people were forced out on the streets and became the first homeless/bag men.

[MichMary]

3. Mental hospitals

were often rife with abuse, and shutting them down, and especially ending involuntary commitments was very much a liberal goal. There were a few problems with doing so. Communities were simply not equipped to deal with the issues, also putting delusional people, or people with disordered thinking, in charge of their own mental health was probably never a great idea.

[catbyte]

23. So are you saying that liberals, and not Reagan slashing mental health funding, are to blame?

[MichMary]

24. I'm saying it's both

Back in the early '70's my high school boyfriend's mother was chronically depressed. She was hospitalized a number of times throughout her life. He told me that at one point they had been told that the only way she could be hospitalized (presumably involuntarily) was if she was a danger to herself or others. That pre-dated Reagan by a loooooong time.

[MuseRider]

4. That is exactly what happened

I bring this up all the damned time. I had just finished working 8 weeks at the state hospital as a nursing student. I was in the locked ward with severe cases of schizophrenia, some were already criminals and were there because they could not live in prison. They all ended up on the street, except the criminals who went to prison. Sure, they will come in for their meds, sure they will.

This was a incredibly stupid thing to do and cruel to those who ended up living in the streets and trying to get by ending up dead early or in jail.

[2naSalit]

6. Both you and

MichMary are correct.

I have first hand experience with that disaster of a policy. My younger sister was, just as this policy was going into full swing with the wrecking ball, diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and I was trying to care for her after other family members had failed to help her much. She had been in CA, at that time it was Raygun's wet dream of a police state following his time as gov., and I moved her to another state and found that there was no way to help her with such a drastic disorder. I had to abandon her at one point to get the state to step up and provide her with minimal therapy with lots of drugs. It's no wonder where the basis of the policy which created a social mess from a previous one came from, big pharma and the then growing private prison business.

Sadly, my sister died at forty from cigarette related illnesses, she literally smoked herself to death from chain smoking, she said it was the medications that compelled her to smoke like that. I was not with her when she died, she disappeared twelve years prior to that and it was just a fluke that she made contact with a family member about a year before she passed. She had been "trafficked" to Texas and some guy took her in for the rest of her life at some point. Her death certificate said she had no family and her birth year was wrong, but it was what was left of her. There's a sad irony in that.

Mental illness is caused by many things and we, as a society, have chosen to either lock up those who can't or won't conform to our norms, we drug them to death or flat out abuse them in unspeakable ways until they die... but we rarely consider taking proper care of them or assisting those who try to do so.

[PatSeg]

11. Such a sad story

and probably not uncommon. Our society discards people so easily. I guess we shouldn't be surprised by the immorality that has taken over our government and White House.

[2naSalit]

13. Indeed...

I have a different "throw away" issue now, homelessness. Been living in my SUV since last May, in Montana. A drumpf state w/a D governor. If it weren't for him, it would be much worse... more like a trumptopia.

I'm pretty damned sick of it. If all goes well, I will actually have a place to live by myself for the first time since May of 2016, and if I weren't in a disability claim appeal, I wouldn't be able to move into this place.

[PatSeg]

16. I wish I could say that I can't relate,

but I've come so close to homelessness on more than one occasion, with small children and fighting a chronic illness. I lived with fear and dread, off and on, for many years. To this day, I jump at a loud knock on the door, remembering the fear of being evicted.

I have two close relatives who went through homelessness, that would have been avoidable in a more compassionate society. How a nation takes care of the least fortunate is an indicator of how strong and enduring it truly is. If we don't change, I'm afraid we will become the "once strong democracy" of the Western world and future historians will study us trying to determine what went wrong.

[BigmanPigman]

19. It won't take future historians to figure it out.

I have read and seen intelligent and experienced people comparing our current society, govt, and history to world history and we are definitely on the decline. It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that though.

[PatSeg]

20. Yes

Especially with those of us who have lived through many decades and can see first hand the decline in education, health care, wages, and overall morality. I can remember the first time someone jokingly said to me, "Nice guys finish last". It was meant in humor, but eventually it became a mantra for people seeking more money, possessions, and power, with no regard for who got hurt along the way.

I listened to the old "I pulled myself up by the bootstraps" cliche from people who never knew a day of hunger or cold. Rampant materialism and greed, combined with apathy took root decades ago and we are seeing the fruit that it bears.

I can look back over the decades and see all the markers, big and small, that led us to this point in time. It is something you don't always recognize in the moment, but in retrospect the pattern is quite clear.

[SunSeeker]

17. Yup. Mentally ill wandering our streets in rags is Reagan's legacy. nt

[FSogol]

5. Well said, K&R. n/t

[jimmil]

7. My brother was a schizophrenic..

And suffered greatly due to lack of professional support. Believe me, you cannot take care of a person with schizophrenia yourself. They will tear your family apart. The need to be in an institutional setting. In the days since Reagan that institution has been either jail or prison. My brother ended up dying on the streets at 43 years old.

[UpInArms]

8. I am so sorry ... for your family

And for the loss of your brother

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. Your title is perfect. It was the beginning of the end.

That "sweet ole grandpa" figure was evil. The downfall of America began on HIS watch.

[UpInArms]

26. Thanks, ferrets

My heart is so heavy today

[japple]

10. It was during the Reagan admin that the GOP began their focus on "Greed is

Good" for everyone. Jerry Falwell and the rising Moral Majority were instrumental in getting Reagan elected. This is when America began to fall into decline.

[GetRidOfThem]

14. I was not politically much in tune prior to Reagan, but during the early years I noticed something..

I grew up in D.C. as a young immigrant from Germany. Having been born in 1965, I was 15 years old in 1980 when Reagan was elected. I noticed that all of my American friends had their heads filled with all of these radical ideas, many of them libertarian. I did not like the tone much, and the blabber got on my nerves. This it was a "special" period.

Fortunately those very friends have turned out to be strong liberals after all. They matured. But it was scary how all this new thinking consumed them at the time, how William F. Buckley was a worshiped intellectual, and so on.

What I learned out of this is that the U.S. has a nearly uncontrollable streak in that people all of the sudden blabber stuff that has nothing to do with reality. I remember the famous "welfare queen" arguments, and yes, Reagan emptying the clinics and putting ill people on the street. All of the sudden there were more homeless people around.

I myself was raised in a more conservative, religious household. So my skepticism came from a gut feeling, not from what I was being intellectually taught. My father thought Reagan was god's gift to humanity, and I accompanied him to visits at the Washington Times headquarters.

Fortunately for me, I started following my gut instinct, and did not get absorbed in the pseudo-justification of the weird. I thought, quite simply, that Reagan's policies were mean, and I think now, as we see Agent Orange, he is not just a malevolent narcissist, but also a sadist. What bothers me is how often people confuse mean with smart!

[PatSeg]

21. I think some of that was reactionary

as people were still horrified by the violence and discord of the sixties and seventies. People wanted stability and people like Reagan and Nixon before him, promised "law and order" and a return to "American values". The hippies got real jobs and conservatives took over government.

[GetRidOfThem]

22. That could be one explanation

It works for the older generation that experienced the discord of the 60's. But it does not fit my age group. I never experienced the turmoil of the 60's. But my parents did.

[PatSeg]

25. I was a young adult at the time

I found it an exciting time to be alive, but my parents' generation (depression era and World War II) found it very disturbing. Now I can look back and understand to some degree why it was all so disturbing to them. They had survived the Great Depression and weathered the 2nd World War, so they were comfortable with the peace and prosperity that followed. My generation didn't appreciate what all they went through anymore than they could understand our desire for change - civil rights, women's rights, voting rights, abolishing the draft, etc.

Obviously, there are no simplistic answers. There are so many things that contributed. This is just an overview from what I have observed over time.

[Wounded Bear]

12. There is actually a push here in WA state to do something...

about the mental illness crisis. It's not necessarily violence related, but it does certainly relate to the opioid crisis as there is a strong recognition (finally) that the drug war cannot be won with guns. Obviously, there will be no Federal support as long as Repubs are incharge in WaDC, so funding is a huge issue. But there is strong appeal, and one of the facets is trying to get the psych docs on the front line, as it were. There is talk of taking Drs on ride alongs to situations, along with training of LEOs in conflict avoidance and de-escalation, rather than the old west "fastest on the draw" techniques that get so many people killed.

Jimmy Carter was ahead of his time on many issues.

[gay texan]

15. Saint Ronnie

Was a self absorbed bullshit artist. He didn't give two fucks about anyone beneath him.

[B Stieg]

18. My dad was New York State clinical shrink (King's Park) when Reagan did this...

So he quit and joined the VA. He said downsizing the NY system would really change the country, and it seems he's been proven right over the last 40 years or so.