Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally lll Essay

1. In my article deinstitutionalization bought on some positive effects by lowering health cost, but negative consequences came into the community also. Bringing into effect such things as Medicare and Medicaid, and the establishment of the Community Health Centers. This began to make it easier for the mentally ill to be able to get the help and rehabilitation that was needed rather than just being placed in mental institutions and left alone. â€Å"For example, decreases in inpatient mental health care can be complemented by increases in outpatient mental health care. Decreases in inpatient mental health care can also be paired with increases in other forms of care, such as social welfare, criminal justice, or nursing home care.† The article showed that the government began to step up and take part in the care of the mentally ill, making a way for the public hospitals to no longer be responsible for the mentally ill and private sectors to step in and offer more one on one care. Deinstitutionalization began to free up rooms in hospitals and offer lower medical costs 2. But crime and homelessness did increase in local communities. Some former patients went home to their families, some to nursing homes, where almost a million mentally ill Americans are said to now live. Because of the amount of mentally ill people being released or put out of mental institutions this bought on a great deal of them living on the streets and forced to rob and steal in order to survive. This is how the crime rate began to increase, mentally starting to be placed in the jail or prison system, which in the long run ends up costing far more than one being placed in a mental institution. Communicable diseases became more prominent as women began prostituting themselves. With their mental capacity questionable, it was still believed that people didn’t care what happened to them nor did they pay attention to their needs, until the epidemic of STD’s such as AIDS began to rise and start to affect what was considered to be â€Å"normal Americans households.†