As someone with a relative who was institutionalized in the 60's and 70's, I can tell you the severely mentally ill, particularly those with schizophrenia or severe mania who are off meds, often believe there's nothing wrong with them, don't want help and view anyone who tries to help as a direct threat.
This is a pretty good read on deinstitutionalization.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/special/excerpt.html
It's been around since the mid 1950's. A prominent figure in the movement is Dr. Thomas S. Szasz, who argued throughout his career that mental illness is a metaphor for human problems in living, and that mental illnesses are not real in the sense that cancers are real.
Between the nanny state and anarchy, Szasz definitely erred on the side of anarchy. An avowed atheist, he still got in bed with the Church of Scientology to form the "Citizen's Commission on Human Rights. He also championed "right to death".
I've searched in vain for a couple of years now, but there was a semi-famous cause célèbre with the Hollywood/liberal set back in the 70's that was used to do away with forced institutionalization. It may have been Judi Chamberlin. Regardless, I read a poignant article by the woman's mother, who if the daughter was to be believed was a hugely destructive force in her life. She witnessed how the liberals against institutionalization used her mother as a weapon, which the mother reveled in. Meanwhile, her untreated schizophrenia nearly drove her daughter to suicide. It was heart wrenching to read and I recognized many of the issues I saw with my relative as a child. Scary times.
Every president from Kennedy to Reagan did things that undermined mental institutions and mental health treatment. Some as a result of closely held beliefs, some as a compromise used to gain ground on other issues and some to save budget money. In the end, both the left and the right are responsible for jails and homelessness being the primary "treatment" for the severely mentally ill in our society. No one owns the problem and no one wants to.
Googling Szasz and Chamberlin will lead to lots of links on deinstitutionalization and the various interests and organizations that made it happen. None of them have done anything to improve on moving them from in-patient facilities, to the jails and streets. As a result, many of the mass violence events committed by the mentally ill since the mid 80's, haven't had much of a chance to be prevented.
