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Deinstitutionalization In The United States

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I come before you to state that we as a country have reached a downward spiral that we refuse to acknowledge. Our national debt continues to go up along with poverty and the cost of living. Today in this great country, we treat those with mental illness and learning disabilities with low value by placing them in prisons, retirement homes, homeless shelters, and everywhere else except in a proper mental treatment facility needed to attend to their needs. As president, during my term, I plan on addressing these issues to create growth in this country so that we can rebuild ourselves.
As of March 6, 2016, our country is in debt about $19 trillion dollars, and if every citizen were to pay $59,124, or for every taxpayer, $159,693, we would be …show more content…
31, 1963, President Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Centers Act into law. Starting in the mid 1970’s, deinstitutionalization began to take affect, shutting down metal hospitals (Sheth). However, the policy of deinstitutionalization has since failed miserably.
According to US Congressman Ted Strickland, thousands of mentally ill patients are being dumped out of state hospitals into communities that do not have the adequate services to receive them (Sheth). These efforts are known as "the deinstitutionalization movement", and have resulted in trans-institutionalization, in which huge numbers of mentally ill individuals lands in jails, prisons, homeless shelters, and flop houses (Sheth). Because of this, approximately one-third of homeless persons suffer from severe and disabling mental illnesses …show more content…
At least 9,000 people with psychiatric disabilities are released annually from New York jails and prisons, and 40 to 50 percent of clients in the community mental health system have a history of criminal arrest, creating a direct correlation between mental illness and imprisonment (Sheth). According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 40 mental health hospitals have closed in the past decade, and during the same period, 400 new prisons have opened up (Sheth).
In 2003, President Bush created the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health to review the mental health system (Sheth). Coming back, the group described the American public mental health system as being “in shambles”, their review showing the failures of the mental health system (Sheth).
Yet, there are steps that we as a country, as a community can take to rise from these dismal positions we have put ourselves in. As president, I would like to specifically face deinstitutionalization by raising awareness of options for those who have or know someone who has mental illness. I plan on making more jobs readily available for those with mental illness at every facility so that these persons can be contributing members of society. I would also like to being special instructions at institutions to teach those with learning disabilities to preform tasks needed in the work

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