My mother, as first a nursing resident, and then a nurse anesthetist in the '50s, saw the most important input into this process, the "major tranquilizers" AKA first generation anti-psychotics, which came into wide use in-between those two, she was astounded one day when she saw a "hopeless" patient she knew from her 3 months residency in a psych ward working in the same hospital as she was, in some custodial or runner role.
But I strongly suspect he had an informal network in that hospital, which made sure he took his nasty meds (and they are nasty, I had to take Zyprexa at full strength for a while to end a hypomanic episode caused by a doctor prescribing a drug which turned out to be a big mistake, and then not realizing it for a month until my GP noticed and mentioned this to him over lunch; if you're worried about this happening to you, and all sorts of drugs can cause it, keep a diary of your sleep, and if it e.g. has an entry of 3 periods of 30 minutes, seek competent help fast, uncontrolled like this mania is serious medical emergency, and insidious for the patient suffering from it).
See, the thing was, after millennia of psychosis being untreatable, and soon bipolar disorder falling to lithium carbonate, we'd achieved a true miracle. But the transition to a new management regime for these particularly severe disorders was utterly botched. It started with a commission in the '50s, leading to Federal legislation signed by JFK less than a month before his assassination, and only 4 years later does Reagan even come into the picture, seeing as how he wasn't even a position of power until 1967 (read the bare facts in the intro to this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Mental_Health_Act).
In short, blaming it on Reagan is Not Even Wrong; a wonderful opportunity for humane treatment of the most mentally ill was botched for a bunch of reasons, and he was only following the scheme "The Best And Brightest" came up with before its failings became all too apparent, in part due to the ACLU and willing courts eliminating the necessary force to make it work, e.g. forcing people to take their nasty meds or otherwise get fully institutionalized again.
A cynic would also note that redirecting money from mental hospitals to transfer payments was a much better way to buy votes.... And it's still happening, in the last year or two Missouri Governor Jay Nixon shut one down for the "retarded" just a bit north of me.
Thinking about this further, the ACLU and the willing courts that followed its lead were all that was required to create the current even more inhumane system for our most mentally ill:
It doesn't matter if the venue is a state mental hospital or a community mental health center, if neither can force a patent to take their meds and otherwise get necessary treatment, or in the former case even stay in the hospital, then neither has the slightest chance of working.
And once that's true, and you're only allowed to pretend to take care of them, heck, you might as well fail in the cheapest way, which would be community mental health centers.
Sort of like how outsourcing can "work" for corporate software development projects: most of them fail, either outright or by not delivering even if they're declared to be a victory, so failing more cheaply by outsourcing can make sense.
But I strongly suspect he had an informal network in that hospital, which made sure he took his nasty meds (and they are nasty, I had to take Zyprexa at full strength for a while to end a hypomanic episode caused by a doctor prescribing a drug which turned out to be a big mistake, and then not realizing it for a month until my GP noticed and mentioned this to him over lunch; if you're worried about this happening to you, and all sorts of drugs can cause it, keep a diary of your sleep, and if it e.g. has an entry of 3 periods of 30 minutes, seek competent help fast, uncontrolled like this mania is serious medical emergency, and insidious for the patient suffering from it).
See, the thing was, after millennia of psychosis being untreatable, and soon bipolar disorder falling to lithium carbonate, we'd achieved a true miracle. But the transition to a new management regime for these particularly severe disorders was utterly botched. It started with a commission in the '50s, leading to Federal legislation signed by JFK less than a month before his assassination, and only 4 years later does Reagan even come into the picture, seeing as how he wasn't even a position of power until 1967 (read the bare facts in the intro to this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Mental_Health_Act).
In short, blaming it on Reagan is Not Even Wrong; a wonderful opportunity for humane treatment of the most mentally ill was botched for a bunch of reasons, and he was only following the scheme "The Best And Brightest" came up with before its failings became all too apparent, in part due to the ACLU and willing courts eliminating the necessary force to make it work, e.g. forcing people to take their nasty meds or otherwise get fully institutionalized again.
A cynic would also note that redirecting money from mental hospitals to transfer payments was a much better way to buy votes.... And it's still happening, in the last year or two Missouri Governor Jay Nixon shut one down for the "retarded" just a bit north of me.