Mentally Ill

Thank you for the front-page article “Mental Health Care: A System on the Verge of Collapse” (June 24).

There are currently several thousands beds available in closed or semi-closed state hospitals. Reactivation of these units could be done within a short time.

The social planners, academics and politicians who arranged the debacle of the late ‘60s were simply wrong.

In California, many thousands of former patients have been neglected, died or ended up in jail or prison as result of these changes. We had a balanced and viable mental health system. We were No. 1 in the nation. Now we are at the bottom. With a budget-busting program that does not work.

Let us turn the clock back and soon.

WILLIAM A. WEATHERS

Redlands