In the 50s, the pharmacutical companies started coming out with wonder drugs that help hundreds of thousands of mentally ill patients live normal lives. We as a society used that as an excuse to wash our hands of the problem. Let them pop pills, we said. The Federal Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was passed and hundreds of thousands of women and men with long term mentalhealth problems were released from psychiatric hospitals, promised by President Kennedy that “the cold  mercy of custodial care would be replaced by the open warmth of community.” The promise was not kept by his successors. States, including Florida, closed long term psychiatric hospitals without prevention or residential services in place or without building full outpaitent care.

Many Floridians in need of support became homeless or langished in jail or prision. That trend continues to this day. We can never change past mistakes, but we can go forward to correct them. We as a country need to invest more resources into growing our behavioral health workforce, increaseing research and innovation into mental health treatments, and most of all build community capacity to care for the mentally ill. By doing so, we keep jails and prisions free of those that don’t belong there, and help those suffering thorugh no fault of their own.

Original source can be found here.