Deinstitutionalization continues

The deinstitutionalization of mental patients in the 1970s was predicated on community care for patients. Almost immediately, such care was defunded, seeding the national homeless crisis.

Occasionally, states fund new community care programs and eventually, these too are cut. Likewise, funding for reinstitutionalization is also cut. This story from California compresses the whole cycle into a cameo.

Note the newish element of consultant funding. In certain corrupt states (that might be all 50), consultant funding is a political plum dispensed under patronage. The procurement formalities are observed but the outcomes are hilarious. At one point (and perhaps even today) all nursing homes in New Jersey were or are owned by companies run by prominent Democratic politicians.

Mental health remains another source of political patronage.