Veria - Claim Fact Check

Claim: Prior to President Ronald Reagan's actions, individuals who would later be considered “such people” were admitted to asylums and institutions and were not allowed to roam free.

70%

Claim Analysis:

Prior to deinstitutionalization, people with severe mental illness were indeed housed in asylums and state institutions. For approximately 100–150 years, the standard practice was to institutionalize individuals with mental illness, and they were not free to roam¹.
Involuntary commitment was standard practice. The asylum system involved confining people with mental health disorders, often against their will, and they were not permitted to move freely in society¹².
However, deinstitutionalization was a broader bipartisan movement that began well before Reagan became President. It started with President Kennedy's Community Mental Health Act of 1963, and new antipsychotic medications in the 1950s made community-based treatment appear more feasible³¹.
As Governor of California in 1967, Reagan signed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, which significantly restricted involuntary commitment and advanced deinstitutionalization at the state level. By the time Reagan became President in 1981, many patients had already been discharged from state hospitals during the 1960s and 1970s²⁴.
As President, Reagan did repeal the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 and reduced federal support for community mental health services, but the claim's framing around "President Ronald Reagan's actions" as the primary turning point is historically oversimplified⁵³.

The core historical description of the pre-deinstitutionalization era is accurate, but the attribution to "President Reagan's actions" rather than a broader multi-decade movement that began in the early 1960s is misleading.

Overall validity: 70%