Hacker News Reader

Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

The US used to have places to send those people. Santa Clara, CA had "The Great Asylum for the Insane".[1] Later "Agnews State Mental Hospital", then "Agnews Developmental Center", and finally demolished for a Sun Microsystems facility. It was the classic "funny farm" in a rural area, with impressive architecture.

This was the early 20th century solution to homeless crazies. Was it better than what we have now?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnews_Developmental_Center

View on HN

The "state hospital" in my area was shut down in the eighties. It turns out that many of their treatments were ineffective and inhumane. I believe there is still a support group for former patients that is active.

I don't know how much truth there is to it, but people I've known that worked in metal health institutions have complained that they're systemically being shut down with no where for the patients to go. They say that often patients end up being handled by police, EMTs, and medical workers. None of which are particularly expert in dealing with mental health issues.

That happened in the US a long time ago, starting in the 1960s.[1] "By 2000, the number of state psychiatric hospital beds per 100,000 people was 22, down from 339 in 1955." During this period, prison populations went way up.

[1] https://www.uniteforsight.org/mental-health/module2

I think that is true, this is a population that has been historically under-served. In my opinion, lack of funding was at least part of the problem with these institutions; one common thread seems to be a lack of staff.

So that's what that is. I thought it was some business center since it was near Sun.

There is a lot of hidden history in Silicon Valley.

Another (computer oriented) one can be found reading "The Secret History of Silicon Valley" https://steveblank.com

Frankly, I don't trust healthcare leadership to people who call a suffering human "a crazy", and that's why those places were shut down. Society reaps what it sows.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com