still crazy after all these years...

"we should discriminate against the homeless and put them in insane asylums..that would be the intelligent approach"..Dale Francisco- Santa Barbara City Council

so I was watching the city council meeting and caregivers were trying to get support for a small housing unit for treating homeless folks..and there was Dale Francisco, lecturing everyone on the problem of the homeless and its root causes..according to Dale, Santa Barbara's homeless issue began in the 1960s and the ACLU giving too many civil rights to the mental patients...that's it..that was his argument...the 1960s and the ACLU are to blame..if it weren't for that decade and the ACLU, we could just round up the homeless and send them to insane asylums! that's we he said! what a fucking idiot..Dale you are one ignorant dumbass sonofabitch! history is full of horror stories about how the mentally ill were treated..like you would treat them..like a Nazi would treat them....let's take a walk down Memory Lane, shall we?

death, illness and tragedy have long permeated the history of American insane asylums. Beginning in the late 18th century buildings that housed the criminally and mentally insane swept the country like a plague. Now, all but lost to history, is the brutality of these istitutions. Torture and abuse all but flowed freely and time has yet to erase the multitude of horror that was brought down upon each surving soul... the 1960s and the ACLU didn't cause homelessness...just check the history!!

1946: Mental Health Act of 1946

. Provided funding for research into causes, prevention and treatment of mental illness. It also led to establishment in 1949 of the National Institute of Mental Health and provided for Federal investigation of mental hospitals. Investigators found apathy, neglect, and custodial care. Late 1940's--Early 1950's: Exposés of hospital conditions produced a widespread public and professional demand first for reform and then for dismantling of state hospitals. 1949: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a new component of the Public Health Service's National Institute of Health, came into existence. 1949: The New York State Mental Health Commission was formed. 1949: The State mental health system included 27 facilities, and the state's inpatient census was the largest in the nation. WWII - 1950s Hospital construction during the War halted in New York State, and a significant number of state hospital staff entered the armed forces.

here's a look at one asylum....circa 1800s...and Dale, what you really fear is the shadow of the homeless staring at back at you...if you're solution is to rearrange benches on State St or round up the undesirables and lock them away, then you're part of the problem, not the solution..and the problem is mental illness...ignorance such as yours is a type of mental illlness...shall we come and get you, too?

The Ridges- Athens, Ohio

Facts

The Ridges, also known as the Athens Mental Health Center, is located in Athens, Ohio. Originally monikered the Athens Asylum for the Criminally Insane, this massive institution first opened its door on January 9, 1874, 135 years ago. The State and Federal Government had purchased over 1,000 acres of land from the Coates, a family whos farm had previously occupied the land.The main building, enormous in structure, was designed around the idea that it was therapuetic for patients to be housed in a facility that resembled a home. Asylums at this time were more often than not a facade of mental abuse and torture. The Ridges was a first of its kind, an asylum where bleeding, freezing,and kicks to the head were not thought of as ways to "shock" the illness out of the brain. The less disturbed patients were housed closer to the center where the administrative offices and employee housing were. The violent patients were housed at the far end of the wings away from employee housing and convenient exit and entries. The bulding housed over 200 patients until over crowding ensued in the early 1900's. The patient count then rose to nearly 2,000 patients in a building with only 544 rooms. The increase in popularity lead to the decline of patient treatment. Once unique in its mental practices, The Ridges fell prone to old time customs. Eventually, The Ridges reverted to hostile patient care including physicall abuse, water treament, shock therapy, and lobotomies. Athens families sent their relatives to the Asylum for care. An average of two to three Athens residents were committed to the Asylum each year. The institution was a community resource for the elderly with dementia, for those suffering from depression, for those with drug and alcohol addictions, and for those likely to harm others or themselves. It was also a resource for families wishing to rid themselves of troublesome family members, especially women, and the Asylum accepted persons who were problematic to the community, such as homeless men ("tramps") and persons with epilepsy. Asylums have invariably met community needs for social control, and Athens was no different. For example, in the Athens area, nineteenth century home of the United Mine Workers, sheriff and judge worked to commit to the Asylum a newcomer from West Virginia because of his preoccupation with establishing a labor union (Athens Mental Health Center Patient Records: Male #1945).

By 1993 the Athens Asylum for the Criminally Insane bused its last patients out and closed its doors for good.

psychologists work everyday helping mentally ill people get back to some semblance of a normal life... real psychologists, not quacks like Dr. Laura...the ones in community based programs...that model has replaced the institutions..so you better get used to it and stop trying to sweep the issue under the rug..it doesn't matter if you spin the benches around on State St..or paint them blue... the homeless have been here forever..and will never leave...ever...