My experience in a developing nation is that schizophrenics, provided they were not actively dangerous to their surroundings, were well cared for by family and

My experience in a developing nation is that schizophrenics, provided they were not actively dangerous to their surroundings, were well cared for by family and their general environment. The 'village idiot' (even in the big city where I lived) - their words - was free to roam the city and generally watched out for by everyone. Of course, the flip-side was that those with mental illnesses (or other disabilities) who had no family would generally have a miserable existence. Edit: the equivalent I've found here in the West has been Evangelical churches. I strongly suspect some of the 'prophet' or otherwise 'specially anointed' characters to be (mildly?) schizophrenic.