Back when I left academics to start my private practice (this would have been around 1992), I filled in some vacant days at county mental health clinics until I could fill my private office schedule.

From the very first, I was exposed to mentally ill patients who lived in boarding homes.  Some of them were reasonable – I wouldn’t say any were good – but some were tragic situations and the residents were basically trapped.  They needed somebody to take care of them, and in many cases they were taken advantage of.

I just kind of tripped over this recent report of abuses in the board-and-care homes. The hard thing for me is that it is so easy to believe.  I am glad the video was not released to the public because I am certain that it would be the most popular “viral video” on the internet.

The number of people in any world — mine in particular — who get off on physical cruelty is beyond mind-boggling. Since we are dealing with “care homes” I will avoid diving into what family members do to each other. In California, private homes can be licensed for “non-medical custodial care.”  I have avoided setting foot in these facilities for a number of reasons, but let us say simply that the laws here permit the licensure of facilities as small as single family homes, with six guests or less living like a surrogate family, to bigger facilities that look for all the world like nursing homes.   The tinier facilities account for 90% of the lot, or about 8100 facilities. Read more on Nursing Homes and Care Homes Should Not Be For Abuse…