I did a summer job at one as a work-study program right before college. It was still really booming in the early 80’s and I think they sent the most functional residents out to live in assisted homes, and then they were in the process of downsizing and waiting for the rest to die off maybe? They were not taking new residents. It was a large estate with a huge mansion (main building) with over a dozen decent sized cottages all around it. I don’t know how many residents there were, but it was a LOT at that time.

So did we stop needing special facilities to handle all of the mentally ill? Would we rather burden families? Were these people damaged a result of some event? I also wonder, much like illegal immigration, did someone really want the crazies to get out to disrupt society? This still carries many questions for me. The most animated and devious residents were drugged up more right before a full moon and not allowed to go outside during that time.