Yes and no. Purpose, structure, exercise/activity, nutrition, sleep, support and not constantly living in uncertainty, stress, misery and/or isolation help. (In

Yes and no. Purpose, structure, exercise/activity, nutrition, sleep, support and not constantly living in uncertainty, stress, misery and/or isolation help. (In my case, treatment-resistant depression is the default setting irrespective of circumstances, Maslow's hierarchy items or socioeconomic status.) LA's skidrow and Cook County jail's mental healthcare system are quintessential consequences of deinstitutionalization (d20n). Institutionalization, as it existed prior to 1973, was certianly slavery illegal under the 13th amendment (Souder v. Brennan) and not about the panacea of meds or uncaring Reagan. If institutions had simply been funded properly instead of being capriciously abolished, the costs vs. externalities to patients and society would've been far less (ie self-medication, police costs, hospital costs, etc.) Simply, d20n diffused the responsibilities and costs for necessary social services everywhere else, but they didn't and won't magically disappear because people are still people. The moral thing to do is rebuild sufficient and various levels of mental care facilities with proper funding such that patients get services they may not know they need, instead of dying slowly and miserably at a bus station. Another big failure of d20n was the canyons which patients fell into when they were sent to underfunded, poor execution of Kennedy's legacy for Community Mental Health Centers, which left many homeless and in limbo. Instead of a spotty patchwork of services, US counties must be required to coordinate services and provide any missing that comprehensively address: drug treatment, social rehabilitation, housing, work, training/education, health/dental/vision/mental health and social work without the patchwork of duct-tape, missing services and callous neglect that exists today. Homeless people are people.