We are still living with the negative aftermath of radical psychiatric deinstitutionalization of the 1970s-1980s

Food for thought!

Were asylums for severely, mentally ill individuals really so bad? Perhaps, these institutions needed to be updated etc., but not permanently closed. 

Unfortunately, the article is too much about entrenched interests of welfare workers and labor unions etc. What about the lobby of homeless individuals with mental disorders?

Ms. Perera also claims that "fiscal measures" and "budgetary pressures" contributed to the deinstitutionalisation of the 1970s/1980s. I am not sure about the relevance.

"... Psychiatric deinstitutionalization certainly had a humanitarian justification. By the 1970s and 1980s, a combination of poor hospital conditions and post-1960s social reform ideas had convinced many observers that people with mental illnesses were better off living “in the community” than inside the walls of “the asylum.” Novels and movies like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” helped to spread that message. ...

Those governments were also reluctant to fund the community-based services (outpatient medical care, supportive housing, employment workshops) required to successfully transition patients out of hospitals. The United States was particularly unsuccessful at this task. The lack of appropriate community-based services has left many Americans with severe and chronic mental illnesses living on the streets, or in prisons. ..."

The key to some nations’ public support for mental health care | Cornell Chronicle