I would note, a bit late on the thread, the nightmare was mostly marketing on the anti mental health front stemming from a Nixon-Reagan continuum in the conservative movement of the time. My father is a phd clinical psychology and spent his early career doing fellowships and residencies in various public inpatient hospitals for the deeply disturbed (the folks you see on the street now). They were not like you believe, by in large, and the people who work in those environments largely work there out of human compassion, not avarice. My great grandmother worked as nurse in a Wild West sanitarium - now that was a different story.

If you dig into news about current inpatient care for the mentally ill, I think you’ll see something white washed but not too dissimilar to the past sanitariums. Heavily medicated patients confined to close quarters without much supervision and that that exists is unskilled providers, with 30 minutes or less of professional care a week. Patients frequently assault each other and because they’re often placed their by the police for criminally insane behavior there’s no recourse or different place to move them to just an upgrade to their charges. Sexual assaults are rampant by staff and patients. It’s barbaric, but even then, there aren’t enough beds so people in crisis have to wait months getting limited care through outpatient if they have find a psychiatrist with an opening- most don’t take insurance, and even then it can be a six month wait.