Cereal: I cannot believe I was on "Cracked" Facebook page talking about de-institutionalization--well, it started from a newbie's dumb Reagan question, but it disturbs me that old-school institutions appear to be having something of a cultural...faux-stalgia moment. Maybe it comes from the same pot as Trad Wives and plantation weddings. What people picture is someone walking a mentally-ill person around well-tended grounds and gently insisting that they take their meds, which is pretty much what happened, never, and is still pretty much ripe for abuse...literally from where I sit. Even people who might seem pretty radical say "Well, it's okay if *some* people get locked away forever," more than I would like.

Today is Gudanov's birthday! It has been far too long since I've seen Gud around these parts, and I am sending lots of love his way. Is anyone in touch with him? I think of him and worry about him often.

It is also Sean and Bridget's birthdays, but I do see them on FB where greetings of the day can be sent.

Aw, I hope all of them are having good days!

Maybe it comes from the same pot as Trad Wives and plantation weddings. What people picture is someone walking a mentally-ill person around well-tended grounds and gently insisting that they take their meds, which is pretty much what happened, never, and is still pretty much ripe for abuse...literally from where I sit. Even people who might seem pretty radical say "Well, it's okay if *some* people get locked away forever," more than I would like.

The "good old days" notion is probably the bulk of it, yeah. Its hard to see people on the street who should be somewhere quiet and safe and cared for - but that never actually was an option, now was it? Even when that was the initial intent funding was shit and the need outweighed means just about immediately just about always.

And the abuses when no one even tried to do well or were just fucking greedy evil sadistic bastards... a boyfriend of mine worked with former Willowbrook residents. Enough said there.

Yeah, I tend to think One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a truer depiction of what psychiatric facilities were like in the "good old days" rather than patients gently strolling through the gardens of some English country manor.

I discovered the body of the elderly alley cat I've been feeding for years last night. She was the last remnant of the colony that used to live behind my apartment (unless you count my own two, who have been pampered indoor pets for a dozen years). You had a good run, Jojo! Next up on my agenda is finding the time to retrieve and bury her before it rains this afternoon.

Not trying to say, of course, that the money-saving "option" of, like, setting folks free was quite the thing that activists fought for when they were fighting for it. I believe the intentions have always been for clinics that are more patient-focused and centered on communtity living and stuff like that. Which is an *investment* naturally, also requiring commitment--not that kind- and political will(both things that tend to be in American short supply.(And I don't even know that much about the psychiatric survivors' movement, but I do know that most people's vision of a place to go doesn't usually include being locked up. Between my own work and my mother's attendant classes, I've seen footage from Willowbrook three times.--which I think borders on abuse in its own right, trying to show that someone won't abuse me. Everyone should see it once, though, if only to still the Mr. Fix It voice in your head that says "If only there were a *central location* for most of that stuff. I know Dr. Bronston, who worked at Willowbrook and shares my concern that the institution is now made small enough to fit in people's homes anyway...it's a strange feeling to thank someone for your freedom, such as it is sometimes, and also think the person who led the fight is, well, something close to a massive pain in the ass who also can't take a compliment graciously, but that's me and Doctor B.

Jojo was blessed to have you as her person, Matt.

MHSA was kinda like Reconstruction. The whole country could have turned out different if we'd actually gotten to do it.

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Happy birthday, Gudanov, Sean, and Bridget!

Locking people away was awful and a recipe for abuse, but it’s also tremendously hard for people to get mental health care for themselves or their loved ones. I’m not sure what the best answer is for that dilemma.

Yes. I was working on the campus of an old state hospital shooting a television show. It was 600 acres of (now crumbling) dormitories in easy driving distance of my city with thousands of homeless people. That's madness. We really can figure out something besides "sleeping on cardboard" and "permanently locked up in squalor for being poor and/or disabled and/or mentally unbalanced."

There was a man I saw in San Francisco whom I will never forget. He had enormous tumors all over his face and body. He was bright red. He reeked of sweat and urine and alcohol. He was stumbling and skinny and frankly looked frightened. All I could think was "Someone needs to wrap him in a blanket somewhere he can get some sleep." I've lived in NYC most of my adult life, this is not the first hard-up person I've encountered but as soon as I was out of his seeing I burst into tears. My dad and I just stood there and raged. It was heartbreaking. We knew full well there were people in that community trying to help him but for some reason it was impossible.

We have 3 (was 4 till recently) people living at the nursing home where I work for another month who are there pretty exclusively for mental illness (not counting our dementia folks). We do our best for them, and I've been pushing for getting more people more out in the world more often, but it's not great for any of them.

We also have homeless folks who come in for rehab. Some of them want better things for themselves, and we do what we can. Others deny that there is any problem, even though their clothes they went into the ED in were destroyed due to being covered in feces and the person has been blacklisted from every hotel in town.

I'm in pretty much the best of all possible medicaid facilities, and it's still...fucking rough out there. There is no point in human history when we've gotten it right.