Equal treatment for the mentally ill.

I'd like to bring back mental institutions. Sanitariums. Where people are kept for weeks. Maybe months.  To solve their mental health issues. Places where they would get intensive daily therapy. Mental institutions were abandoned. Decades ago. In favor of community-based, out-care treatment. Which often seems insufficient. Too many things can go wrong. Too many people get worse. Not better. They need relatively long-term treatment. In an institution-setting. Where the care is complete and thorough. I'd also make it easier to get the mentally disturbed committed. To treatment. Against their will, if necessary.  I wish there were a full-fledged mental institution in my community.  I'd work hard. To have my dear friend Julie volunteer to go in. But if she didn't, I'd try to make a case for her to be committed. Involuntarily. For her own good. Of course, that would raise hackles. With lovers of individual freedom. Claiming that even nut cases should be allowed to be nuts. As long as they do no harm to others. But I could argue that Julie is doing harm. To herself. And that indirectly does harm to her loved ones, and friends. Anyway, the mentally ill will always be with us. And they deserve to be treated better. Just as well as the physically ill. They have physical care hospitals. And opportunities. For extended stays. The mentally ill deserve equal treatment. In mental care hospitals. --Jim Broede