Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Florida cut $100M from its mental hospitals – chaos followed

tampabay.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 114 posts

Re: Florida cut $100M from its mental hospitals – chaos followed

#31

Post by refurb »

_nullandnull_ wrote: post #8

This is just sad. Didn't something similar happen with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s? http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/30/science/how-release-of-men... http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/timeline-mental-...

Please don't reference Mother Jones. It's incredibly biased.

Just like every other political issue, mental health, is complicated and there isn't one reason or person for the way things are.

Blaming Reagan ignores the dact that new antipsychotics were developed that allowed patients that were previous confinded to institutions to be released to the community.

Also, the ACLU along with the supreme court changed the laws and made it much tougher to confine people for mental health issues. One of the biggest challenges in treating mental health is compliance. Having a mental illness often takes away the ability to see what's best for yourself. Ask a mental patient if they want to go to the hospital, they'll often say no. And based on current laws, there isn't anything we can do about it.

Re: Florida cut $100M from its mental hospitals – chaos followed

#34

Post by ArkyBeagle »

_nullandnull_ wrote: post #8

This is just sad. Didn't something similar happen with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s? http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/30/science/how-release-of-men... http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/timeline-mental-...

Was it Ronald Reagan or Nurse Ratched? Or both ( in series )?

Re: Florida cut $100M from its mental hospitals – chaos followed

#35

Post by shepardrtc »

emehrkay wrote: post #30
pbarnes_1 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you think cut these services? This is GOP 101. Never elect a Republican governor. See MI, ME, FL, etc, etc.

Rick Scott's administration passed a law that said welfare recipients must be drug tested in order to receive benefits. Rick Scott's family has a lot (~68/200 million) invested in some of those facilities.

And here is the initial result of all that: http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/florida-didnt-save-money...

Followed by the end of it: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-declines-to-appeal-furth...

Re: Florida cut $100M from its mental hospitals – chaos followed

#36

Post by [deleted] »

__jal wrote: post #14
leekh wrote: post #2

Why cut these services?! Is Florida going to add more police, social workers, ER doctors and etc deal with the consequences?

Because one political party, currently mostly ruling Florida, has made a core mission out of defunding anything that benefits anyone not already wealthy, not part of a small set of favored programs, or "defense"[1] spending. People with mental issues don't make political donations, rarely vote, and can't defend themselves. QED. [1] We can argue about which was really the the last defensive war fought by the US, but b…

[deleted]

Re: Florida cut $100M from its mental hospitals – chaos followed

#37

Post by jmcgough »

tn13 wrote: post #32

$100M is just a cut. So how much is Florida actually spending on mental hospitals ? Sounds like a ridiculously high cost to me.

When mental health services are cut, the burden doesn't go away but gets picked up by police and hospitals, who aren't properly equipped to handle those challenges. The SFPD and ambulances spend massive amounts of time responding to emergencies involving mentally ill homeless, which limits their ability to respond to other problems.

Re: Florida cut $100M from its mental hospitals – chaos followed

#38

Post by Bud »

jmcgough wrote: post #37
tn13 wrote: post #32

$100M is just a cut. So how much is Florida actually spending on mental hospitals ? Sounds like a ridiculously high cost to me.

When mental health services are cut, the burden doesn't go away but gets picked up by police and hospitals, who aren't properly equipped to handle those challenges. The SFPD and ambulances spend massive amounts of time responding to emergencies involving mentally ill homeless, which limits their ability to respond to other problems.

Yes, this.

Check out the West Oakland BART stop for a good example. There is an ambulance there nearly every day for several hours dealing with the same mentally ill addicted woman. Imagine what it costs to tie up a couple cop cars, an ambulance, and a full ambulance crew. Plus the ER services.

Now compare that to the cost of dealing properly with one mentally ill person.

Cutting mental health services doesn't save us money; it magnifies both the root problem, and the costs.

Re: Florida cut $100M from its mental hospitals – chaos followed

#39

Post by Steko »

refurb wrote: post #31
_nullandnull_ wrote: post #8

This is just sad. Didn't something similar happen with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s? http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/30/science/how-release-of-men... http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/timeline-mental-...

Please don't reference Mother Jones. It's incredibly biased. Just like every other political issue, mental health, is complicated and there isn't one reason or person for the way things are. Blaming Reagan ignores the dact that new antipsychotics were developed that allowed patients that were previous confinded to institutions to be released to the community. Also, the ACLU along with the supreme court changed the la…

> Please don't reference Mother Jones. It's incredibly biased.

What specifically do you disagree with in the linked timeline?

> mental health, is complicated and there isn't one reason or person for the way things are... Blaming Reagan ignores the dact that new antipsychotics were developed that allowed patients that were previous confinded to institutions to be released to the community.

The linked timeline mentions these and doesn't "blame Reagan for everything". However the current context of this discussion is slashed budgets for mental health inpatient care and comparisons to the Reagan administration are both obvious and relevant.

Re: Florida cut $100M from its mental hospitals – chaos followed

#40

Post by MaxfordAndSons »

I was about to wonder aloud why there can't be more private, for-profit mental health facilities instead of private prisons, as huge swathes of the incarcerated population are very mentally unwell and probably do need to be in custody but would likely benefit tremendously from a less oppressive setting. Surely there could be some profit to be extracted by privatization there.

Then I realized it's because they couldn't make mental health patients do slave labor, and why leave all that money on the table when the facilities they'd be building are basically the same, as are the people they'll be housing, once they and their political allies have successfully choked out the public mental health system. Ah the glory of the free market.

Post reply on HN