On: Former University of Iowa hospital employee used fake identity for 35 years

[david38]

Hospitals were closed with the release of new drugs that promised to treat mental illnesses. They didn’t deliver, but the hospitals were closed anyway.

[KennyBlanken → david38]

That is a truly wild bunch of historical revisionism. In the 70's there was a push for greater mental health treatment.

Reagan repealed the Mental Health Systems Act (the result of a commission under Carter) as part of his "small government" mantra.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_Health_Systems_Act_of_1...

Reagan was elected as a conservative backlash to Carter's progressive policies. We're talking about someone so petty he ripped functioning solar panels off the roof of the White House.

[15155 → KennyBlanken]

"Solar panels" - makes these sound like they were photovoltaics and not leaky solar waters heaters.

They leaked water, something you do not want happening in a historical property.

Reagan made a lot of terrible choices, removing leaky containers from one one of our nation's most iconic historic buildings is not among them.

[duped → david38]

...and the fact people were horribly abused, it became widely published, and public outcry was a big factor in closing the "hospitals" that didn't treat their patients.

[duped → KennyBlanken]

It wasn't a fictional narrative, it actually happened.

We can agree that the results were worse but you can't pretend that the abuse was made up by Republicans.

[more_corn → KennyBlanken]

The history of women being sent to mental hospitals for being uppity is pretty clear.

[ChrisMarshallNY → KennyBlanken]

Someone here once linked to this story: https://archive.ph/PrGLB