Screaming Nutters On The Streets

What country are you in OP?

Amerika.

I’m under 40 but I’ve seen documentaries of major cities like New York and the 80s and 90s seemed worse.

[quote] mentally ill and/or drugged out messes running around screaming

There are a lot of replies on DL that are the written equivalent of that, so being used to it on DL, seeing something similar in real life doesn’t phase me.

They used to be institutionalized. Some of the institutions were not very good. It was thought by some people somehow they would be better off if they were "freed". When Reagan was governor of California, he closed them down with the thought that they could be taken care of by local government facilities. Those never appeared.

R5 The change began with Kennedy.

"Fifty years ago this week, President John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act into law. The legislation was aimed at providing different levels of mental health care in federally funded community centers, rather than institutions. This landmark legislation drastically altered the delivery of mental health services in the country." - NPR.

And there was the effort by the ACLU.

To put all the blame on Reagan is not accurate.

It's mostly at our gas stations. I had to pass one by the other day because there was a half dozen loiterers hanging out front. And I knew if I got gas, at least one would invade my space asking for money.

Before the 1960s, they were all doped up, strapped down, or lobotomized in "snake pits."

This is why I stay in the suburbs. They can’t walk that far from their tents.

At some point, their right to be high, litter, piss, shit and jerk off in public is far more important that the health and safety of the general public. The more we encourage it, the worse it gets.

They are enough to put me off my daily walk.

OP lives in California.

In my Midwest city the screamers, singers, yellers, and dumpster destroyers are all African Americans who are psychiatric cases who have been placed in the community without adequate oversight, care, support, or assistance. They don't take their meds.

The system is overwhelmed, without enough case workers and funding. And plenty of the staffs are incompetent because of the low pay.

[QUOTE] To put all the blame on Reagan is not accurate.

Where did R5 put all of the blame on Reagan? As far as I can tell, he was simply telling us the point of view from the right. It was a bipartisan effort and it seemed a worthy cause at the time considering the state of these mental institutions where patients were subjected to all kinds of barbarity. And if they ever decide to bring the institutions back, the same problems will occur due to overcrowding, understaffing, underpaying and poor oversight. Government can never function properly so long as we keep empowering the GOP to sabotage it.

"They used to be institutionalized."

It's yesterday, once more. Once we finish with some preparations, they will once again be institutionalized.

I've been all over Latin America and Europe. Some cities have massive homeless problems and/or street junkies (Medellin, Sao Paulo, looking at you), but the answer is no. You will almost never see severely mentally ill folks screaming on street corners like in North American cities. A lot of European cities have gypsies begging or crusty street punks with dogs...but I would take that over the methed out schizo zombies roaming LA any say.

I saw incidents in Sydney, Australia. That was very ten years ago, so I don’t know if they have cleaned up since.

I read an Atlantic article a few years ago that stuck with me. The gist of it was that the meth sold on the street is made in modern cartel factories and is so strong that it basically drives people insane.

I think that's why we see so many homeless people behaving strangely. Some of them are unmedicated schizophrenics but a lot of them are on meth.

R18 - I agree that it's probably drug-specific.

Just because mental institutions were poorly run and had awful living conditions didn't mean we did not need them.

I've said this before but we need to get tougher on this. If you weren't mentally ill before becoming homeless, you will be soon from just 2 factors: lack of sleep and stress. Stress has such an impact on your body - every day you have to wonder where you will sleep, eat, if you will experience violence or rape. Then, in order to survive, you typically pair up with other homeless and become a makeshift 'family' relationship - which only teaches you how to survive that way but also traps you into staying homeless.

The other part of this problem is the housing situation - there are very few single-room occupancy (SROs) like there used to be 30+ years ago.

And then add the oxycontin/meth/fentanyl crisis to everything. I will say though - I have seen similar things in other countries, just not to the degree that we see in American big cities.

But billionaires need more billions so...

NYC is the 70s had quite a few of those poor souls running through the streets now and then. Once I was crossing somewhere in the 50s along 5th and a woman came flying across with absolute terror in her eyes. It still haunts me a little almost 50 years later.

Trump is going to make America great again. In 5 or 6 years he will bring all those factory jobs back from overseas. He has bombed Iran and is working on relocating the Gazan refugees. He has eliminated tens of thousands of useless jobs and waste. He's deporting rapists, drug dealing, gang member Illegals back to their shithole countries. Imposed steep tariffs on countries ripping us off. And restored confidence and dignity to our proud, REAL men and women in the armed forces.

God bless President Donald J. Trump!

Bravo R19 !

The most intelligent response on here!!!

For lack of a better word, the "nut houses" started getting shut down in the 60s because most of them were awful. The move was to better run institutions that actually tried to help the people who could be helped but that's very expensive. Reagan solved that problem by cutting funding with the lame excuse of "well, the states/cities will pick up that tab" and of course they didn't/couldn't without federal help.

R19 's smart comment about the lack of housing, specifically the end of SROs, and the hugely destructive drugs out there are the main culprits. And, the lack of institutions to help the ones needing help and/or need to be kept off the streets.

It’s meth. A loud, unpleasant drug, not a nice quiet one like heroin.

It’s not either-or R18. They are drug addicts AND they have severe mental problems. One begets the other

OP we have much the same problems in New Zealand, and just like in America much of it stems from the closure of institutions, first the mental ones, and then the drug/alcohol rehab ones on islands and in isolated locations in the late 90's early 2000's. We copied America's model, God knows why as it was already becoming evident it was a disaster for society. Meth has likewise been a contributory factor

Japan on the other hand looked at the American experiment and decided wisely to go their own way, rather than closing institutions they are going through the long slow process of improving them. We were starting down that road too in the 80's until they were closed here instead