We have millions that are mentally ill in the United States......Many are easily identified, they are far right conservative Tea Party Republican Christian Taliban, who persecute, some even kill and murder, their target, are gays, abortion doctors and nurses, ALL in the name of GOD......

PDUG19, Conservatives may be a bit rabid, but you'd hardly classify them as mentally ill. However, this problem in Indonesia is a good example we can hold up to those who don't think our government should spend money on social programs. Imagine what it would be like to face a lengthy life with a treatable condition such as depression and instead be chained to a fence or bench. In my opinion, more money should be spent on the ill and less money should be spent on the malingerers and the cheaters. For some reason our government doesn't seem to be able to organize itself to separate the people who apply for benefits into those two groups.

In my mind it is easy enough. Spot checks and investigations need to be made to the homes of people on disability and welfare to see who is living in the home. For instance, if a woman is collecting Welfare, and a man is found to be living there, she falls automatically into a new group. The woman can no longer collect benefits while living in a private residence. After she has committed fraud, she must must move into a communal dorm living situation with other single mothers or lose her assistance.

If someone is on disability and you find them roofing their garage or working construction under the table, they lose their disability payments.

If the State workmen's compensation funds can send investigators around to make sure the people collecting benefits are really deserving, why can't the states? If they did, then they would have money to take care of the mentally ill properly and provide health care to the seniors who need it.

This is a great and powerful nations which is becoming so wasteful that they are now not able to take care of their own people. It's time to turn that around and isolate the genuine needs from the fabricated ones and structure our social programs so they do the most good but do not encourage laziness and cheating.

In the Reagan years, funding for the mentally was cut and never put back into the budgets. To this day, mentally ill people roam the streets with no place to go because hospitals don't have the budgets to provide in-patient care. In many cases out-patient care and a prescription are not enough. Violence to innocent people can be the result or harm to the mentally ill person. If we managed our social service programs better, we could fund care for these people in a more compassionate way.

I agree with you for the most part.....

Our defense budget is obscene and another reason we don't have the money to pay for social programs..and help the mentally ill....

There are so many ways that the cost of preventative measures prevent damage to society and even lower costs....But the GOP of 2012 cannot see the forest for the trees.....Healthcare reform is one example....offering Free preventative care.....which will save billions catching illness and disease early .Free Birth Control is another example......The same people that want to save unwanted pregnancies, the minute the baby is born, abandon them.....No welfare, no food stamps, no education, if they had their way....but more than willing to suffer the consequences to society of a child brought up in a NON Loving home, the damage a child like this can and often do...just think of the money spend in communities by Law enforcement on these kids and these same people don't mind spending 40,000 dollars a year to keep them in prison and a continual part of the criminal justice system...... Much cheaper to give women the tools to prevent pregnancy's they KNOW they don't want or can afford... with birth control......Here is something to remember... 78% of all Welfare recipient's are either, handicapped, the elderly, or Kids !!!! When you get right down to the amount of DEADBEAT's , It's the LEAST of our financial problems....It's a PIMPLE.....

Now Defense spending is another matter.....American's need to WAKE THE F@uck UP!

When the World Economy slips again into deep recession we will see a lot more mentally ill people on the streets and making news headlines. Hopefully they will not be armed with firearms.

Pdug19 must be chained to his/her/it's computer. Probably in moms basement.

this is why we should stop funding medicaid and every other program that helps people. all we need to do is chain them up to something. oh wait we put them in jail. well chaining them up to something would still be cheaper. maybe the tooth fairy will help them out as long as we don't have to waste more money now that we know about this. maybe we can start some sort of campaign to start chaining up the loser mental handicap people.

The article was about the deplorable conditions people have to live under in other countries, from the comments it got hi-jacked to some self serving political bs. Without compassion for people who are really truly struggling with life where are we going as a race anyway?