Good intentions were not enough: how the decisions of the 1960s and 1970s to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill created a host of severe problems in the United States: homelessness, a dramatic increase in violent crime rates, and the degradation of urban life. While some mentally ill benefited from community-based treatment, for many others, deinstitutionalization replaced often uncaring institutional settings with death by exposure and violence. A category of violent crime heretofore almost unknown--random acts of mass murder in public places--became almost normal.
My Brother Ron tells the history of the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in America, but it also tells the more personal heartbreaking story of the author's older brother, who was part of the first wave of those who suffered a schizophrenic breakdown as the old system went away.
My Brother Ron tells the history of the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in America, but it also tells the more personal heartbreaking story of the author's older brother, who was part of the first wave of those who suffered a schizophrenic breakdown as the old system went away.







