was treatment or options available for mentally ill better years ago? certainly mental health issues arent a new thing so why has this sort of thing only been happening in more recent years?
I have so many thoughts and opinions on this issue; I'll only give what I think is applicable to your question.
Yes, there was a lot of mental health treatment in the past. Actually, I think it was more defined and there were more resources, but that doesn't mean it was better. A mentally ill person was labelled. It was a stigma. They were isolated, they didn't go to school, they were removed from their families and homes (not a Gestapo type moved, but families were convinced it was best), and they lived in institutions referred to as state hospitals or more commonly as insane assylums. I can't imagine what sort of hell those places were to reside in.
The problem of mental illness was brushed under the rug (really it still is). People disappeared. Nobody talked about them. They were essentially gone forever destined to live a life being "crazy".
Today, we don't like to label sick people. Many were misdiagnosed in the past and societally, we learned from that. Autism, Asberger's, schizophrenia, drug abuse, PTSD, et al are diagnosed and treated now. Treated affectively? Not really. Labelled? Sometimes. Mainstreamed? Almost always. Troubled and laden with problems? Most definitely.
I see it on a daily basis at work. What I see are mentally unstable patients who have secondary complications necessitating their admission to the hospital. They are young. They are old. We treat and street, and they go back to their living arrangement and $600 a month check and get admitted again in a month for Another ailment. Rinse, recycle, repeat. Sad but true. If I had to make an educated guess, I would say that 30-50% of the hospital inpatients I care for are in some way mentally ill, and 75% of them are not being treated appropriately for their mental illness.
Mental health care in the USA is a complete joke. Idk what the answer is. I just know that it is broken now. I know that I personally have become so frustrated by mental health issues that I have become somewhat callous, and that's not who I am. I care for and love my fellow man. I want to help. It's my life and my vocation. I feel helpless all the time to be able to help those who need it. So sad...
Sorry for the diatribe airportis. I have a lot of other thoughts too, but I have learned to keep some things to myself here so as not to get the conversation off track.
