Still disgruntled

I'm still struggling with the idea that our country has allowed the mental health system to disintegrate before our eyes.  I'm just as troubled by the fact that for the most part Americans haven't cared.  

Growing up in a town that housed one of the state's mental hospitals I remember how concerned I was when they started discharging seriously ill patients.  The idea was that they would be better served in community mental health programs in the least restrictive environment.  Shortly after discharging about 60 long-term inpatients a former female patient was found frozen to death in a backyard shed.  Her body had been there for about 3 months.  No one noticed, no one cared.  

They called this deinstitutionalization but all it did was shift it to other institutions....mainly prisons and jails.  How much more humane was that?  How do we create change if you can't get anyone to care?  

On to another topic...........my aches and pains?  Nahhhh  but I do have a surgery date.  I'm getting my new hip June 11th.  It's a ways away but my daughters will be available to help me and it just seems like the best time to do it.

I wrote a while back about my high school boyfriend, Albert.  Well, I heard from him yesterday and he is moving back to the US from Paris.  He said he had a mild stroke and things are more difficult now.