I believe the crisis is worldwide. Mental health care has lagged so far behind ‘physical’ health care (or whatever we should call the rest of it, trying not to buy into mind-body dualism). In research, treatments, innovations, breakthroughs - it is rooted in its 19th century origins and confined by the thinking of past times.
The tragic part of stories like MB’s here, apart from the large numbers of people experiencing the same awful thing, is that there are no clear criteria for declaring someone well enough to be released. And the committees that oversee deliberations about release often include people who have personal grudges or are convinced that “never” is the best release date. There is also often an ugly economic incentive to keep people confined.
With cancer, we have the clean scans and the 5-year NED. With mental health problems, nothing remotely comparable. People are challenged to show mental recovery in circumstances that would make us all act and feel mentally ill. It’s terrible.
This situation is as bad or worse in Great Britain, China, many African countries, Russia, many South American countries, Mexico…I think Australia and New Zealand have some real progress to show, though.