Nmh, you’re yearning for a society that never existed. Mad houses have been around since at least the Middle Ages...not exactly the Age of Convenience, back then.
Yes, families should take care of their own...but full-blown mental illness can literally destroy the most solid family unit, if only by stabbing everyone while they sleep.
A young woman I knew managed to kill herself while under suicide watch in a hospital with a nurse right outside the door and a doctor right down the hall...it only takes a moment for the illness to manifest.
Lots of frustration around this tangled issue...gal I know worked as a respiratory tech in one of those old mental institutions, said it was pretty depressing; they were so short-staffed they had pump the patients full of Thorazine to stop them from killing each other long enough to feed them.
Letting ‘em out on the streets, on the other hand, obviously has its downsides, which we see in the news and on our streetcorners everyday.
No easy answers.
Personally, I apply the Golden Rule thusly: I’d like to be left on my own unless such a time came as I became a danger to others...then, most reluctantly, I’d prefer to have the state lock me up than to learn I’d involuntarily hurt someone I loved, or a stranger.
Same as if I had an infectious disease, like TB...I wouldn’t WANT to wander the streets, making others miserable...even unwittingly.
Yes, it’s a burden on state budgets, but I think it’s squarely within government’s limited, necessary functions.
I wonder though- given how much we have to pay for police, medical services and prisons to deal with the damage done by, and to, untreated mentally ill people, would it really cost more to pay for institutional care for such people? The startup costs might be high, if we had to build and staff the hospitals, but it wouldn't surprise me if we saw cost-savings in the long run.