I commend Dr. Henry Nasrallah for his editorial “Bring back the asylums?” (From the Editor, Current Psychiatry, March 2008, p. 19-20). I trained and worked at a large state hospital that was closely affiliated with the University of Michigan, whose residents and staff worked with our staff of general physicians. We had an excellent staff of psychiatrists—most of them board-certified—and psychiatric residents. We were routinely approved by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations as well as the Council for Medical Education.
I lived on the hospital grounds, and people would ask if I was frightened to live there. My reply was no. It was scarier in Ann Arbor where the “druggies” and psychotics wandered the streets without treatment or supervision, much as it is now unless these individuals are in jail or prison.
At one time, this state hospital compared its operating costs with a nearby state prison and found the prison’s funding was 4 times greater than the hospital’s.
Joseph J. Tiziani, MD
Horseshoe Bay, TX