npub12c…ze0wt on Nostr: "A great metaphor for the American healthcare crisis is what happened to the ...
"A great metaphor for the American healthcare crisis is what happened to the California mental health system in the 1970s. Before Reagan, mental hospitals: Napa, Stockton, Fairview, and Agnew were all socialized. People could commit themselves for dependance issues or psychological illness. In these institutions, unless you were severely ill, which few were, you could be trained for a job. Mental institutions were sustainable communities. They had farms and textile mills. Patients raised cattle, grew and cooked their own food, but also made their own clothes and clothing for the California penal system. Reagan comes in and defunds mental healthcare by two million dollars per year. He privatized the model. Suddenly, it's all contracted out. Jobs are lost, farms are shut down, and if you didn't have insurance, you couldn't receive mental healthcare. Nearly three quarters of mental patients got booted out. If you're too sick to work, good luck. Homelessness exploded. Reagan used that model as president and expanded it to regular hospitals. Every aspect of care became privatized nationwide. The American healthcare crisis starts with the defunding of mental health institutions. Now, granted, we've come a long way in the treatment and welfare of mental patients since the '80s, but we need funding. Socialized medicine works."
ALAN GULLIS, recreational therapist, former psychiatric technician, Napa state hospital, 2017
Published at
2023-09-12 14:42:09Event JSON
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"content": "\"A great metaphor for the American healthcare crisis is what happened to the California mental health system in the 1970s. Before Reagan, mental hospitals: Napa, Stockton, Fairview, and Agnew were all socialized. People could commit themselves for dependance issues or psychological illness. In these institutions, unless you were severely ill, which few were, you could be trained for a job. Mental institutions were sustainable communities. They had farms and textile mills. Patients raised cattle, grew and cooked their own food, but also made their own clothes and clothing for the California penal system. Reagan comes in and defunds mental healthcare by two million dollars per year. He privatized the model. Suddenly, it's all contracted out. Jobs are lost, farms are shut down, and if you didn't have insurance, you couldn't receive mental healthcare. Nearly three quarters of mental patients got booted out. If you're too sick to work, good luck. Homelessness exploded. Reagan used that model as president and expanded it to regular hospitals. Every aspect of care became privatized nationwide. The American healthcare crisis starts with the defunding of mental health institutions. Now, granted, we've come a long way in the treatment and welfare of mental patients since the '80s, but we need funding. Socialized medicine works.\"\n\nALAN GULLIS, recreational therapist, former psychiatric technician, Napa state hospital, 2017",
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