Discussion: Help for the Mentally Ill

This is a topic to ponder over:  By the way the media portrays the mentally ill, you would think that every one of them is a gun toting mass murderer in the making.  It is shocking to see statistics that prove more Americans suffer from a mental illness than is widely acknowleged. Those who live with schiztophrenia and bi-polor disorder, amung countless other illnesses, are filling up prisons, engorging our homeless poplulation and destroying families.  Yet we do nothing to aid in support to those who are suffering.  Often the diseased are aliented to the point where they become dangerous.  Where is the help to cushion the fall when they have an episode?  Ronald Reagan shut down the asylums.  Are the diseased to be treated as a common criminal when they can not control thier own mind?  Something has to change. Any ideas?