If only I lived in Pittsburgh
The old Mayview State Hospital is closing down, forcing 220 residents out to find their way in a world without sufficient psychiatric services. Though it's generally cause for celebration when people get out of the hospital, we've seen, especially in cities like Philly, how deinstitutionalization failed many former patients, who ended up homeless and hungry. If I lived in Pittsburgh, I would buy a video camera and spend five years documenting 10 patients leaving Mayview, and see where they ended up and why. Those with supportive families, I'm guessing, won't end up homeless. Those without families and without money? It's a tougher road, no matter the goodwill intended.
Comments
Um, the folks on the street are not the same folks who were discharged from Byberry. Only 2 former Byberry patients were lost to follow up of all those discharged.
It is really a myth that closing state hospitals led to homelessness. The Byberry divert program was created with the money the federal judge ordered to follow folks into the community and lots of residential settings were created as well as drop in centers and clubhouses with that money along with a special Byberry divert hospital space at St. Mary's where folks could stay for 6 weeks.
It is illegal to discharge someone from a state hospital to the street or a homeless shelter, I am quite sure it won't happen.
We have new folks who have lots of reasons for being homeless and being homeless can make some ill, others lost their homes or funding for housing etc. or their main problem is substance abuse.
Posted by: Alison Hymes | August 17, 2007 08:41 PM
It seems like making sure the people they discharge have adequate housing in the community is the very least they could do. It would be terribly wrong if all that money they used to spend on the state hospital wasn't spent to provide housing and a few support services, and at least give these people a fighting chance. Homelessness and sanity seem to be almost mutually exclusive of each other.
Posted by: Kent | August 17, 2007 11:53 PM
As Alison points out things aren't as simple as they seem. I lived in a boarding home for over ten years and as I am a tolerant guy I was the one who shared a room with any newly admitted male. Most of them foresook three meals a day a roof over their head and a lovely community to live in and moved down to skid row and wound up on the street. Homelessness is an incredibly complex issue so be careful about generalizing.
Posted by: terry | August 18, 2007 04:07 AM
I think I'd like to live in the kind of home Terry describes. Yet one more reason to wish I lived in Vancouver!
Posted by: Kent | August 21, 2007 07:20 PM