What is Deinstitutionalization?

On our last episode about the interplay between the police and people in mental health crisis we talked about one of the most influential political moves of the 20th century that hardly anybody knows about. Deinstitutionalization was a policy from the federal government that dissolved our mental asylum system in favor of transitioning to community mental health. Unfortunately, this plan was never fully funded so the government got rid of the main form of support and housing for the severely mentally ill, and did not give them any place to go. This is one reason why the houseless problem has increased in the US, and why the prison system has become the largest single provider of mental health services in the country. Many people kicked out of asylums were eventually arrested for victimless crimes and placed in prison.

For more information check out our episode "Defund the Police! or Support, Retrain, Reallocate", and check out the article below from the AMA.

https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/deinstitutionalization-people-mental-illness-causes-and-consequences/2013-10