TY  - BOOK
AB  - Beginning in the 1960s in the United States, scores of patients with severe psychiatric disorders were discharged from public mental hospitals. At the same time, activists forced changes in commitment laws that made it impossible to treat half of the patients that left the hospital. The combined effect was profoundly destructive. Today, among homeless persons, at least one-third are severely mentally ill; among the incarcerated, at least one-tenth. Of those individuals living in our communities, many are the victims of violent crime. Other untreated individuals commit crimes, including murder and assault. Here, advocate Torrey takes full stock of this phenomenon, exploring the causes and consequences as he weaves together narratives of individual tragedies in three states with sobering national data on our failure to treat the mentally ill. In the book's final chapters, Torrey outlines what needs to be done to reverse this ongoing--and accelerating--disaster.--From publisher description.
AU  - Torrey, E. Fuller
CN  - RC443
CN  - RC443
CY  - New York :
DA  - c2008.
ET  - 1st ed.
ID  - 323512
KW  - Mental health services
KW  - Mentally ill
KW  - Mentally ill
KW  - Dangerously mentally ill
KW  - Mental health laws
N2  - Beginning in the 1960s in the United States, scores of patients with severe psychiatric disorders were discharged from public mental hospitals. At the same time, activists forced changes in commitment laws that made it impossible to treat half of the patients that left the hospital. The combined effect was profoundly destructive. Today, among homeless persons, at least one-third are severely mentally ill; among the incarcerated, at least one-tenth. Of those individuals living in our communities, many are the victims of violent crime. Other untreated individuals commit crimes, including murder and assault. Here, advocate Torrey takes full stock of this phenomenon, exploring the causes and consequences as he weaves together narratives of individual tragedies in three states with sobering national data on our failure to treat the mentally ill. In the book's final chapters, Torrey outlines what needs to be done to reverse this ongoing--and accelerating--disaster.--From publisher description.
PB  - W.W. Norton,
PP  - New York :
PY  - c2008.
SN  - 9780393066586
SN  - 0393066584
T1  - The insanity offense :how America's failure to treat the seriously mentally ill endangers its citizens /
TI  - The insanity offense :how America's failure to treat the seriously mentally ill endangers its citizens /
ER  -