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Essay On Deminstitutionalization

1298 Words6 Pages

Deinstitutionalization: A Harsh Reality Deinstitutionalization is defined as releasing mentally ill patients from state psychiatric institutions and then shutting the institutions down. This began in the United States in 1955 and has consequently contributed to the rise of the mental illness crisis today, where many Americans do not receive the treatment they need for mental illness (Torrey). The introduction and evolution of new drugs into the mental health facilities allowed for a way to release a multitude of patients back into society. Many of these patients were also misdiagnosed, while some needed to be in a mental institution. Release meant several things for these patients. Some became homeless, went to jail, or ended up going back …show more content…

The original intention of shutting down state psychiatric institutions was to decrease the cost of having to take care of the mentally ill population. Deinstitutionalization, however, ended up rising the cost overall. Federal spending on mental health research went from “$10.9 million in 1953 to $100.9 million in 1961” which was a drastic increase (Whitaker 153). Drug companies also ended up raising their prices to $3.03 per bottle of chlorpromazine, six times what could be charged for the medication in France, as they were the only one selling the neuroleptics needed to “treat” these mental illnesses (Whitaker 155). As soon as patients were released, institutions and the government no longer had to worry about paying for them in the institution, however, they did not consider what they would have to pay for the person when they were released. “’In 2001, a University of Pennsylvania study that examined 5,000 homeless people with mental illnesses in New York City found that they cost taxpayers an average of $40,500 a year for their use of emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitals, shelters, and prisons.”’ (Mondics). This cost is only from the homeless individuals that were released. It does not also consider others who ended up going to prisons just for mental illness. Deinstitutionalization hurt the economy more than it helped it and hurt people who were released from these

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