Nowhere to Go

This open access book attempts to answer the question, “Why are so many severely mentally ill people homeless or incarcerated?”  Updated since it’s original 1988 release, this book tracks the history of this question in the United States. The answer begins in 1955, when the United States deinstitutionalized the 559,000 patients who were in state mental hospitals. Today, only 35,000 remain. In 1963, Congress funded President Kennedy’s proposed federally funded Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs), whose main purpose was to provide care for the patients being released from the hospitals. However, most of the CMHCs never did so, but rather became counseling centers for individuals with less serious mental illnesses. The lack of psychiatric aftercare for severely mentally ill individuals resulted in more than 200,000 of them who are homeless and more than 250,000 others who are in jails and prisons. This story also includes little known details such as the role played by conscientious objectors who worked in the state hospitals during WWII; Rosemary Kennedy’s psychosis; the influence of the conservative John Birch society on Presidents Nixon and Reagan; and mental health myths incorrectly attributed to Reagan. Finally, the book discusses what needs to be done to improve the mental illness treatment system. This is an ideal guide for psychiatrists, psychologists, and members of the public who are concerned about homelessness.