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by didericis 2348 days ago
My understanding was that many of the institutions that housed and treated mentally ill people were closed in the 70s due to public outcry about mistreatment. The wikipedia article on deinstitutionalization in the US seems to corroborate this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinstitutionalization_in_th....

It sounds like some institutions were closed after that movement got going, so I wouldn’t be surprised if institutions were closed under the Regan administration, but I think the decline in public mental institutions preceded his administration and was largely unrelated to it.
1 comments
gamblor956 2348 days ago
No, the closure of mental institutions occurred during the Reagan administration because he cut funding for treating mental illness from his budget.

In CA, when he was governor, Reagan ordered the closure of many facilities.

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refurb 2348 days ago
No, there was a society-wide push to close institutions. Reagan might make for a nice whipping boy, but putting it all on him is just silly.
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gamblor956 2348 days ago
No, this is false. The number of patients dropped but almost all facilities remained open and were improving care.

Reagan than decimated the mental health department in CA below sustainable levels, and followed that up by ending federal funding of mental health treatment only a few years after trying to make the federal government pay for it when he was governor. As most state budgets no longer covered mental health, the result was an enormous drop in government spending on mental health.

And yes, it's all directly traceable to Reagan.

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