Funding cuts so deep they kill

Good find. It's a national tragedy I think. We just collectively did two things as a society: decided that mentally disturbed people are better off on the street than in an institution, and then mostly looked away from the situation while asking the PoPo to deal with these folks.

 

It's weird that we don't want to pay for mental heath and social aid, but we are willing to pay huge amounts to lock people up. Paying for education, childcare, and healthcare is a lot less expensive overall than locking people up especially we count how much we pay law enforcement.

 

The lack of beds for mental health is a serious concern but comparing it to the 1950's isn't really a fair comparison because treatment and medicine efficacy has drastically changed over the last 70 years. There were many people institutionalized in the 1950's that never should have been and also would not be with modern medical treatment.

The larger issue is actually not getting people more treatment. We have worked hard and have greatly improved medical options for low income and homeless when it comes to getting them medicinal help. Many homeless people do receive pills and treatment. There are some that simply should not be on the street because of refusing to take their medication or they have more severe condition, but it is a smaller percentage than people believe.

The bigger issue is that we have a lack of affordable housing for people that are homeless or close to homeless. We also have too much red tape and conditions on help. Many of the people homeless suffer from substance abuse, have had traumatic childhoods and are in a very difficult situation. In addition many homeless people DO have jobs, and you would not even know that they were homeless if you saw them. The homeless are far more likely to suffer a behavioral disorder, largely due to trauma and not receiving proper treatment when younger.

We have started to respond better to heroin addicts by setting up methadone, subutex and vivotrol stations that give addicts medication options that are less dangerous and also prevent many of the nasty social side effects. People can have jobs and relationships on these medications. However, there are not enough of these centers.

What we have not done is address the issue of housing. There are different opinions on how to handle this. One solution is to have literal government housing. This will will certain attract a certain level of crime and other issues to these locations, however people will have places to sleep and this will allow them to pursue employment or at least keep them off the streets. It also will limit the pressures that lead homeless people to become addicts.

The second option is for the government to provide a version of stipends that allow those that are homeless to pursue housing on their own. This would mean the government would provide a set amount each month for housing and private entities would provide the housing. The concern with this is that it doesn't address the cost of housing in general.

The minimum wage hike figures into this as well. There are a lot of "working homeless" and an increase in the hourly wage would make it easier for them to get out of the homeless issue.

We also really need to do a better job of protecting children in this country and that is cultural problem. We have made massive gains in the last 10-15 years. However more needs to be done. I cannot stress how many people with mental issues develop these problem from poor childhoods. It can be physical abuse, sexual abuse or split families or having parents that are not doing their job. These problems lead to self medication through drug use, risky behavior and homelessness.... which only augments their behavioral and mental issues. The VAST majority of addicts, violent criminals, sexual predators and homeless suffered from abuse in childhood.

There are people outside of the government doing a fantastic job with these issues and the solutions and the understanding of these issues is growing in the US culture greatly, but we really need government intervention and we don't have that. There needs to be a strengthening and increase of the infrastructure. Many of the resources we have are being poorly used. Addressing the cost of housing, the severe income gaps and inferior schooling in some areas all need to be tackled. The government needs to also develop a progressive treatment plan for drug users and focus on treatment and not incarceration.

As a side note, I just want to address something. I read and hear a lot of those in the media, especially on stations such as Fox talk about the homeless situation in California and the assertion being that California is creating the homeless situation and it isn't addressing it. This is at BEST only half true. First, California attracts MANY homeless and people close to being homeless. Many people from across the country (including red states) that are homeless or runaways flock to Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the homeless sub culture this is "the place to be". The reason for that is the weather, that California is more progressive towards the homeless and will not tear down their tents and last.... because California DOES address the homeless situation more than virtually any other state. There are more resources in Los Angeles and San Francisco than any other place in the USA.

So while people complain about the homeless in LA and SF, short of burning their tents down (which other cities and states do), or forcing them on buses out of town (which other cities do); I am not sure what these people expect the solution to be. What people really mean is that they do not want to see or have to think about the fact that there are homeless people while they drive the $50,000 car around town.

There is too much income inequality and not enough affordable housing. Some of that is the fault of California governance and some of it is not.

These changes ideally need to be made at the national level because it causes an unfair situation. For example, if California decided to double their budget on affordable housing and benefits to homeless people, all that would happen is that more homeless from other states would show up in increeasing numbers. A state like Texas, which does very little would benefit from doing nothing as the homeless would leave Texas for California.

There are a number of issues coming to a head in the USA and in some cases the solutions are straight forward but the political will is not there yet. Infrastructure, the wealth gap and affordable housing all are obvious and the fact that they are not being addressed is cowardly and will harm America going forward.

 

It is about money and the lobbying interests of groups that profit off the system.... also older Americans in large numbers still follow the archaic model of locking everyone up. I have no issue with long prison terms for larger drug dealers, violent crime and the like. However drug users should not be in prison.

 

There are a lot of domestic violence offenders in prison also. It's not that I don't think they should be locked up but I think it would beneficial to prevent that type of behavior from happening. Anger management, counseling, etc.

 

Domestic violence in large part is a consequence of trauma suffered in adolescence and improper treatment (if any) was provided. While there is some treatment that has shown some degree of success for those that already are committing domestic violence.... the far better solution is to make "changing the culture" effective, and we are doing that to some degree successfully. What we need to do better is increase psychiatric resources for children. That can be addressed through schooling but that would require additional funding.

For example, my son's school has three psychiatrists for about 120 students. They work at the school full time and they daily interact with the staff, teachers and students. They both are confided in by students, but they also set the cultural tone by training teachers and having every two weeks, in every single teachers class room, discussions on proven techniques to handle anger and other issues that are common for children.

This also proves effective over generations and it snowballs.

Does this prevent every form of abuse for every student? No, there will always be some abuse that gets through but it is largely proven to be extremely effective. There are those that complain about paying a psychiatrist six figures for kids. However, what they do not realize is that it saves massive costs to society down the line.

 

The justice system is improperly burdened with the cost and responsibility of handling people who should be housed and cared for by the state hospital system. There are many people who are homeless because they are mentally ill - much of the mental illness is comorbid with drug addiction. Some of it is created by drug use, especially drug use at an early age, which is damaging to the developing brain. Some of it is self medicating existing MH problems. Many people are eligible for shelters or housing assistance but the requirements which include things like no drug use (or no pets, etc.) mean that folks choose to sleep in tents rather than abide by those rules.

It's really a catch 22 for cops (and judges, and prosecutors) because homelessness and mental illness aren't best dealt by the judicial system. But when people are panhandling outside businesses, or breaking into buildings, it becomes a situation where "someone" needs to intervene. And a revolving system where they are arrested, released, and rearrested over and over again doesn't really benefit any of the folks involved. (And doing nothing wouldn't help anyone, either). Many of those folks are incapable of caring for themselves and really should be in a state hospital where they can receive long term care and supervision. But that would require both the funding and the inclination to involuntarily house those individuals.