As a street cop in metro Detroit in the late 1970's, my fellow patrol officers and I would occasionally encounter clearly delusional individuals.

If the delusional individual appeared to be suffering from a serious episode of mental illness, had not committed a serious crime and had no family care options, we were directed to transport the individual to a regional psychiatric hospital for evaluation and assessment.    

The hospital employed mental health professionals to complete an emergency assessment of the individual. If a mental health concern was validated, the individual was usually admitted. The case was then assigned to a psychiatrist. If the recommended course of treatment required hospitalization or care beyond 72 hours, a probate judge was assigned to oversee the case and when possible the family was brought in.  Although not perfect, the system seemed to work fairly well. Sick people were not ignored.

Unfortunately, since the 1970s, as our country's population has grown by 52 percent (105 million people), approximately 400,000 mental health treatment beds have been shuttered. The math alone should tell us something.

Although the deinstitutionalization movement was well intended and reduced the type of institutional abuses as dramatized in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the promised transition to a more effective, robust, community-based mental health system never materialized. Our social safety net was slowly obliterated. The pendulum has swung too far.

After most of the state mental health hospitals throughout the country were closed, federal and state governments did not honor their commitment to fund community based mental health programs. Florida is 49th out of 50 states in per capita mental health funding, and it shows.

Today our frustrated police officers, judges and community have virtually no effective options or facilities for those uninsured  individuals we encounter who are suffering from some form of serious mental illness.  Most have few, if any, family ties. In my view and experience, the cumulative effects of this 30-year policy, of callously neglecting community mental health needs, are the primary reason many cities throughout America now experience high and disturbing levels of chronic homelessness and associated substance addictions.  The shortage of affordable housing is a secondary cause.  

We have too many lost souls revolving in and out of our jails, medical hospital emergency rooms and wandering around our streets. Unfortunately our streets, jails and parks now serve as de facto mental health facilities that are not organized, staffed, equipped or funded to manage this very real human health issue. As the Sarasota community strives to pull together resources to house the chronically homeless and fund additional sheltering/jail diversion facilities, the system must  address the gap in mental health programs and facilities.

Although all chronically homeless do not suffer from some form of mental illness, a significant number do. The homeless problem and human tragedy in our increasingly complex world will continue to be exacerbated and grow until the gaps in essential mental health treatment options are filled.

Thomas Barwin is Sarasota's city manager