Ray Ring on his brother's mental illness and suicide

Recently Ray's excellent work came up in a thread when Dave Kindred quoted a passage of one of Ring's novels. Here's his latest in the High Country News:

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17608&utm_source=newsletter1&utm_medium=email

 

Great read. tnx for posting.

 

Indeed, a great read, but I don't care for this:

The only feel-good rush on this issue came during the 1950s to the 1970s, when nationwide reforms freed many people from long-term warehousing in mental hospitals.

Two sentences later, he says that the vast majority are on the streets (which is true, because in my town they closed a state hospital 10 years ago and I still see the former patients wandering around). So, what, "warehousing" wasn't better than having them wandering homeless on the streets?

From here to forever, I will always advocate that asylums, especially for the severely disabled, are just what is needed. I'm not blind to the fact that misdeeds did happen at mental hospitals over the years, but the majority did treat people with compassion and they received help and shelter. You tell me where they're getting it today.

The way the mentally ill have been treated for more than a hundred years is nothing short of a travesty.