Men's jail title photo

Deinstitutionalization

By annamcenger

  • The Food and Drug Administration approves the first antipsychotic drug, Thorazine.

  • The number of mentally ill people in public psychiatric hospitals peaks at 560,000

  • Erving Goffman publishes his book "Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates"

  • The proportion of patients aged 65 years or older hospitalized in Los Angeles County hospitals is at 21%

  • Passage of Medicaid (Federal)

    The federal government ends financing for mental health treatment in institutes for mental disease (IMD), which are identified as facilities that primarily exist to deliver mental health services. Thus, states are incentivized to move mentally ill patients out of psychiatric hospitals.

  • Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (State)

    This landmark legislation, signed by Governor Ronald Reagan, prohibits involuntary hospitalization for mentally ill patients on the grounds that it is inhumane.

  • The number of mentally ill people in the criminal-justice system doubles in one year after the passage of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act

  • The proportion of patients aged 65 years or older who were hospitalized in Los Angeles County hospitals is at 6%

  • Proposition 13 (State)

    Limits property taxes to no more than 1% of assessed valuation, resulting in a sharp decline in property tax revenue.

  • Federal mental-health spending decreases by 30%

  • Los Angeles County enters a series of budget crises precipitated by Proposition 13

  • Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (Federal)

    Establishes block grants for the states, which put municipal mental health services in financial competition with other public services, and officially ends the federal government's role in providing mental health care.

  • LA County's psychiatric hospitals are so overcrowded that they reject 50% of cases

  • LA County cuts $28.6 million for the Department of Mental Health

  • There are 3 times as many mentally ill people in jails and prisons as in hospitals

  • 11 hospitals in Los Angeles County close due to financial strains

  • Mental Health Services Act (State)

    Increases the state income tax by 1% for millionaires to fund mental health services. Funds are used to create prevention and community engagement programs.

  • Governor Schwarzenegger's budget redirects $600 million in county mental health funds

  • After the Great Recession, states cut $4.35 billion in public mental-health spending over the course of three years

  • The psychiatric bed ratio in the US reaches the same value as 1850 (14 beds for every 100,000 people)

  • The proportion of patients aged 65 years or older hospitalized in Los Angeles County hospitals is at 3%

  • The incidence of suicide increases 20% in LA County jails between 2012 and 2014

  • LA Homeless Services Authority estimates that 30% of homeless people have a mental illness or substance abuse disorder

  • LA County's homeless population grows 42% between 2010 and 2017

  • There are only 22.7 psychiatric beds for every 100,000 people in LA County

  • At least 90% of state hospital patients come from the criminal justice system