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As a rehab technician, I work with people living with mental health challenges, supporting them as they reintegrate into the community. Many of the people I support have experienced homelessness, incarceration or addiction, and every day I work with them on their treatment goals.
That’s why I was outraged when I heard about the Trump administration’s executive order titled ” Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” This move directs the U.S. Department of Justice to expand the use of indefinite, involuntary institutionalization for people with mental health disabilities, and others deemed unable to “care for themselves.” It further weaponizes federal grants to promote draconian and carceral solutions to drug use and homelessness, and strips funding from effective harm reduction and housing-first programs.
This policy is as cruel as it is ineffective. Forcibly institutionalizing people for being poor or disabled is a fundamental violation of basic human rights and dignity. Moreover, it doesn’t work.
We know what works: stable housing, harm reduction, consistent community-based support and mental health care that centers dignity, autonomy and recovery. People recover when they have support, not when they are punished. Trump’s policy is not care; it is containment.
Community mental health services are already underfunded, understaffed and overwhelmed, and this is only getting worse in the wake of Republican cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Instead of investing in what helps people, this policy turns treatment facilities into holding pens and abandons the very people it claims to help. We deserve a system rooted in care, not coercion.
Brendan Davison
Bangor
