Mental Illness and Public Administration

Mental illness is a prevalent issue in our country today. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimated that 20-25% of our nations homeless suffer from mental illness (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). Many people with mental illness end up in prison without proper care and supportive housing (NAMI, 2011). Without proper care, people with severe mental illness cannot function as productive members of society (HCH Clinician’s Network, 2000). Proper housing, care, and professionals to guide them, the quality of life for people with severe mental illness is poor. In this paper, I will review and analyze three journal studies regarding policies about homelessness, and guardianship by public administrators for people with severe mental illness.

Alvin Mushkatel, Subhrajit Guhathakurta, Jackie Thompson, Kathy Thomas, and Michael Franczak (2009) explored the quality of life of people who have serious mental illness, who where homeless within the metropolitan Phoenix area. In the experiment, two programs that were looked at were Supportive Housing (SL) and the Supervised Assisted Living (SIL) programs (Mushkatel, Guhathakurta, Thompson, Thomas, & Franczak, 2009). The study looked at different factors “such as neighborhood racial composition, incomes, housing tenure and concentrations of other subsidized housing” (Mushkatel, Guhathakurta, Thompson, Thomas, & Franczak, 2009, para. 1) and how it impacted the lives of people with severe mental illness. In 1997, “deinstitutionalization had resulted in 2.2 million severely mentally ill patients without supportive psychiatric services” (Mushkatel, Guhathakurta, Thompson, Thomas, & Franczak, 2009, para 3) and many people with serious mental illness became hom...

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... (2003). When the state takes over a life: The public guardian as pubic administrator. Public Administration Review, 63(4), 396-404. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from Research Library. (Document ID: 370511071).

Thomas, A.R.. (1998). Ronald Reagan and the commitment of the mentally ill: Capital, interest groups, and the eclipse of social policy, Electronic Journal of Sociology, ISSN: 1198 3655. Retrieved from http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.004/thomas.html

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1999). Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved from http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/pdfs/front.pdf