Could Sanitariums Be a Future Growth Industry

[David Horn]

(10-05-2017, 08:36 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: It has now been nearly five years since a mentally ill young person killed several in a school shooting in Connecticut. At the time of the Newtown Massacre it was revealed that the sharp decline in mental health services during the past three decades left a void which figuratively could have prevented tragedies such as this one. As we know, between then and the massacre in Las Vegas a few days back, there have been many more mass shootings, very often perpetrated by someone who was obviously mentally imbalanced at the time of the act.

Years ago many of those unstable individuals were housed in facilities such as sanitariums, away from the general public usually. Many of them were inhumane, virtually one notch above prisons. Many if not most of the inmates pretty much had life sentences. But at least there was shelter from the rain, wind and snow and got, as the saying goes, three hots and a cot.

The balance we seek between the quest for greater personal freedom and others in society that may need protection can often be elusive even though it can also be found within ourselves, meaning that we have the ability to create positive outcomes by redirecting our energy to suit our own wellbeing. Apparently the sanitariums and similar places in the past failed at this.

But now could be the time for a revival of sanitariums being that so many are being freaked out by the stresses of modern life, which I believe the information age and some our addictions to it have magnified. And I am sure there are many who find themselves unable to cope with the stresses of the cost of living and getting by today, with so many forced to live paycheck to paycheck or even more on a shoestring.

We need to hope that they will be more humane this time around, but such places at least can provide a communal living experience which is sorely lacking in modern life. Could what's old become new again?

I remember when the doors were opened and the patients were allowed back into society.  The argument: we know how to treat these people in the community, and it's both cheaper and better for the patients.  Of course, they forgot to deliver on that, so here we are.  Since most are only a risk to themselves, they can be ignored ... and are.