North Country Forum
Dr. Carney’s most recent posts are to be found here. He is in the process of compiling a complete archive of all articles he has written since his retirement from professional social work practice in 2010. All his blogs have as their focus issues pertaining to social justice; are generally placed in their historical context; and, ultimately, are subjected to in-depth analyses whose aim is to promote a full understanding of the issues being addressed.
The Mouse That Roared: CIAD & Friends vs. the State of New York
If you log onto the website of the New York State Office of Mental Health at www.omh.ny.gov, you’ll find out that less than three thousand individuals are hospitalized at any one time in the State’s ancient state mental hospitals, euphemistically known for the past thirty or so years as psychiatric centers. Not bad for a state that institutionalized close to one hundred thousand presumed mentally ill persons over fifty years ago. What you wouldn’t find out is that the State maintains a shadow system of institutionalized housing and has since it began to empty out its hospitals. The State doesn’t operate these “adult” homes, which probably...