title: Abandonment of responsibility for the seriously mentally ill.
abstract: The road leading to the demise of state responsibility for the seriously mentally ill and the current crisis of abandonment was paved with all the best intentions. Tragically, policies underlying the pattern of abandonment are based on erroneous interpretations of what patients need and what our current techniques can produce to help them. An index of declining hospital census must not be mistaken for the goal of care.
mesh_terms: D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D003688:Deinstitutionalization; D006291:Health Policy; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006783:Hospitals, State / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012941:Social Responsibility; D014481:United States