Should We Open More Long-Term Psychiatric Facilities?

A PLANET THAT WAS 24000 MILES FROM END TO END PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION WAS SMALL WHO SUFFERED A MENTAL TYPE OF ILLNESS FROM AN ANOTHER SCENARIO ; DIFFERENT MOTIVES YET REMAINEDER OF POPULATION WAS NOT INTERESTED IN THEIR "IDEA"

I think long term mental hospitals are needed. Not the asylums of old but modern facilities offering support, classe, therapy and helping to transition the mental ill back into society. I also think prisons should have separate psychiatric prisons. We have to many people in the US that are being under treated or not treated at all. I went 3 months a year and half ago when I should have been on a psych hold but there was no space.

This is a very valid topic. I've read articles that basically said jails have become overcrowded with people who have mental illnesses. Jails are not set up for mental health issues, they compound the problem for everyone from staff, inmates and the mentally ill.
Opening up long-term facilities is debatable. A lot of short-term facilities just get patients stable on their meds and out the door they go with no follow-up. The institutions of old are also scary places, they even look scary. I'm in favor of long term care if (1) an overhaul is done to make long term care effective. (2) They are seriously needed as many mentally ill people end up on the streets with no support at all, or are stuck with a bunch of criminals behind bars which exacerbates symptoms of the mentally ill.

The institutions (hospitals) are neither the problem or total solution. They can benefit a community by offering a place for safe stabilization. What needs to be implemented is more effective pschosocial rehab and aftercare so that clients do not have to be institutionalized. If the hospital is more concerned with money/profit, they will be happy to continue "warehousing" people the way the prisons in America do.

I'm with Becky on this one. This is a very touchy subject but the fact of the matter is that since the psychiatric hospitals all closed what? about 20 years ago, we now have a terrible homelessness problem in North America. I am not saying that we should institutionalize people. I have also spent more than my share of time in psychiatric hospitals over the years but what is the alternative? Prison? No. People need COMMUNITY supports, not long-term care in a psychiatric hospital. Where I live there is an organization called WOTCH which stands for Western Ontario Therapeutic Community Housing. They have done a remarkable job of helping the chronically mentally ill in our community and visits to the ERs and stays on psychiatric units are way down. This is more of what we need in North America.

My cousin had mental health issues and was in and out of hospitals and jails eventually ending up homeless. The sad thing was his mother (a retired) forensic psychiatric nurse should have known better and been there for him, but unfortunately she was also an alcoholic who married a lot of men that mistreated her and her kid. Another sad thing is that it wasn't until he got a PHYSICAL illness that he began to get the proper supports he needed.
I also know a close family friend whose brother and father both worked in the same psychiatric hospital - both ended up sadly committing suicide and died. This friend who works at the same hospital now has alot of problems and is also an alcoholic. I fear he'll end up like his other family members or worse if he doesn't get the help he needs