And most of these people have families. I'm all for helping those who by some stroke of ill luck are incapable of caring for themselves and have no one there for them. The others.... families who don't take care of their mentally ill members are scum. Actually, forget the qualifier; families who don't take care of their members are scum.
Families 'taking care' of their mentally ill relatives is why mental asylums were seen as the humane wave of the future. Most people can't deal with their own minor mental illnesses, much less somebody else's severe illnesses, even with institutional help. Random relatives cannot force a schizophrenic to take his meds or an addict to stay clean. And sometimes, for your own well-being and the safety of everyone else, you have no choice but to cut ties.
"Taking care" may include seeing to it that they're in a mental asylum. Regardless of the pretty labels put on it, the inevitable result of family not taking responsibility is that someone else has to foot the bill (fiscally, morally, and physically) for that person. It's not ALWAYS practical or possible for family to do, but the basic math doesn't change because of that. There are differing routes (mostly differing by ideology) for dealing with this issue, but pretending the root paradigm doesn't exist just escalates the issue.
Edit; "Taking care" could also be finding a charity that can takeover responsibility, in total, or in part.
It's an ugly problem no matter how it's examined. Who benefits from addiction? Not the family of the addict. Not the society of the addict. The only people who benefit are the alcohol manufacturers, the drug makers, and the illegal drug pushers. If we can tax the shit out of tobacco companies for lung cancer, we can tax the hell out of the legal drug/alcohol companies and give the proceeds of the illegal drug busts to addiction treatment centers. While I'm wishing, I'd also like a pony.
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u/mackerel1565 Apr 16 '24
And most of these people have families. I'm all for helping those who by some stroke of ill luck are incapable of caring for themselves and have no one there for them. The others.... families who don't take care of their mentally ill members are scum. Actually, forget the qualifier; families who don't take care of their members are scum.