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Pennhurst and Bridgewater State Hospitals and the resulting exposes on these facilities were the start of the abandonment of most state run mental health services and facilities.

Search for "Suffer the Children" from 1968, by NBC10. added: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG33HvIKOgQ&feature=emb_logo

added: Also search "Titicut Follies" for temporal context

Those calls to action lead to defunding and closing of many facilities on mass regardless of the services they provided or the conditions. From orphanages up to mental health institutions.

That period was followed up by a small influential group of individuals that lobbied very hard to have state schools for the handicapped and severe development delays closed in preference of services provided by local schools culminating in Title 1, which was eventually federally mandated regardless of the level of care and support a child might need.

Both of these large changes led to significant changes in the cultural acceptance of institutionalization of any individual young or old, even to the detriment of those individuals in some cases.



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