U.S. Mental Healthcare System Failing Patients, Advocates Say

Huffington Post

On Feb. 9, 1844, the governor of Missouri ate breakfast, went to his office and locked the door. Then he shot himself with a rifle. Thomas Reynolds’ death rattled the state and inspired a conversation about mental illness that led to the founding of its first public mental hospital. 168 years later, Missouri's mental health system is in crisis. “The place is something out of the 1920s,” Missouri State Rep. Jeanne Kirkton said of Fulton State Hospital, the state's first. “Have you ever seen ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’? It’s that, but worse.” A report by the Missouri Mental Health Department found that Fulton “is inordinately expensive to operate and is an extremely dangerous environment for both patients and staff.”

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