Housing in the U.S.A. for individuals in mental health recovery: The pendulum swings
Autori
Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Boston University
For centuries, treatment and accommodation for people with significant mental health conditions in many countries, including the United States, had been viewed as necessarily inseparable elements, first in asylums and then, with deinstitutionalization, in so-called “community care models”. The advent of psychiatric rehabilitation and later, recovery, helped to shift the paradigm of mental health services to one focused on promoting the ability of individuals to achieve not only a life located in the community, but one that reflected a meaningful life as part of a community.
The late 1980’s to 1990’s were a time of innovation in housing appraoches and government partnership for people with significant mental health conditions. While stigma and discrimination were still strong, the “moral” climate of the country was beginning to accept the fact of inclusion of individuals with psychiatric disabilities.
The 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center basically pushed America back toward the right, providing a rationale for more control, less risk, more inward facing, “tribal” concerns. The emphasis on helping people to use housing as a springboard to integrate into their communities became a more of a whisper…. and support for re-institutionalization began to slowly creep back in. The unanswered American question of today is how to imagine a progressive approach to housing across the life span, that is both feasible and also pushes back against the “tribalism” in order to help people live the lives that are meaningful to them.