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Oh yeah, let's hear it for the good old days of snake pits. Now, I'm not saying that deinstitutionalization was good for all the mentally ill -- but I've worked them and have a disproportionate number in my family. Most do not need to live in asylums. (Altho in point of fact, mental hospitals continue to exist for the most severe cases of mental illness.)
If the funding for community living in the least restrictive environment had followed deinstitutionalization adequately, there would no problem, except for those paranoid schizophrenics who will often refuse all help and who want to live on the streets.
Whatever the issues with the mentally ill in this nation, an excess of "empathy" ain't one of 'em. Guess if I know that, it makes me one of those hated libruls. Day by day, I become surprised at how someone who was long considered a right-leaning libertarian (me), is suddenly left-wing.
