Insane asylums haven’t actually been a thing since the days of Marilyn Monroe ‘s own mother, ehum, when she was committed due to severe mental illness. But, if Trump has his way, asylums may soon make a big comeback — and it could prove to be extremely beneficial to America.
During a town-hall discussion with politicians and law enforcement officers, (see here), Trump touted the idea as possibly “a partial fix to the growing mental illness issue in the United States”.
For the first time, critics, are actually in agreement with something Trump has said. Institutions were a big thing from about 1900-1955. By the mid 1950’s, ehum, they sort of underwent this period of “de-institutionalization” that left more than 560,000 mentally ill people without the help they desperately needed. More often than not, at the time, asylums were often seen as hot-beds for psychiatric abuse (among other things).
In the Spring of 1963, U.S President John F. Kennedy ordered the signing of the Community Mental Health Act. The act was meant to ensure that community like mental health centers were created. Although none of that actually happened as there was a major funding shortage. Given that Kennedy wasn’t around very long, the remainder of that very act was left up to the following leader Ronald Reagan.
Reagan, in the following years would severely gut funding for mental illness; psychiatric wards/asylums and all various kinds of centers. The hopes of community like centers that allowed the ill to live on their own, eventually, had faded.
Trump now hopes to reverse Reagan’s actions and hopefully bring them back and leave them well-funded. According to (this study) almost half of the entire U.S jail population has some sort of mental illness, with jail, being the largest modern psychiatric facility in North America.
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