Final answer:
During the 1970s, deinstitutionalization policies saw the transition from state-run to privatized care for the mentally ill in the United States, which often led to patient homelessness or incarceration due to inadequate care in private facilities. This period was part of a longer history of mental health care reform and the evolution of attitudes towards mental health, dating back to efforts by Dorothea Dix in the mid-1800s and changes in the classification of behaviors like homosexuality by the 1970s.
Step-by-step explanation:
The 1970s saw the institutionalization of tens of thousands of patients in state mental hospitals who had been subjected to deinstitutionalization. Policies under then-Governor Ronald Reagan in California, and subsequently across different states, closed state-run facilities for the care of the mentally ill. Various facilities were privatized, based on the belief that private board-and-care homes offered more cost-efficient and quality care compared to government-run facilities. However, with lax regulation, many privatised facilities turned out to be profit-driven, staffed inadequately, and poorly managed, which led to numerous patients leaving and often ending up homeless or incarcerated.
The institutionalization process and the reform of asylums started much earlier, however, with figures such as Dorothea Lynde Dix advocating for better treatment of the mentally ill in the mid-19th century. Even prior to the 1970s reforms, the psychiatry profession had a history of pathologizing certain behaviors and identities, such as homosexuality, which was classified as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association until 1973. The professional view and treatment of mental health issues have evolved significantly over time, particularly with the social change movements of the 1960s leading to a reevaluation and eventual overhaul of these systems.