Unfortunately a great deal of our mentally ill are in prison/jail.

Back in the 70's and prior, mental health facilities were barbaric. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" brought to light these travesties, and many were shut down.

Later, republicans then shut down more by defunding as well. What effectively happens is people are shunted to other communities where better services are offered. Lookup "Greyhound therapy", where city govt's pay for bus service to 'somewhere else'.

Now, the primary caregiver is the penal system. And remember, we still do not have single-payer medical, so unemployed/homeless are still without.

Geraldo Rivera broke into news casting - and won a Peabody - due his reporting on neglect/abuse at the Willowbrook State a School on Staten Island. The video has a horror, flashlight-in-the-dark feel and people reacted strongly. I react strongly.

Robert Kennedy even spoke spoke out in public against the facility (his sister suffered a bad lobotomy requiring full time care). Many kinds of institutions closed in the 1970's, and for good reasons.

I think you have the right impression, fwiw. We typically view hardship and punishment as primary concerns, rather than rehabilitation - regardless of the underlying cause. In otherwords, we like to punish for drugs, instead of treating the underlying cause for the drug use. We punish crime, rather than educating and empowering the individuals to not feel the need to commit crime acts.

With that said though, mentally ill homeless can be a challenging problem. Many of these ill "fell through the cracks", and even if a program was offered for them, they don't have the capability to seek out said program.

Mental health is a definite dark spot in America.

There's a big difference between mental illness and intellectual disability. I supposed you could argue that they're the same and should be treated the same, but, in practice, they're treated and generally thought about very differently in the US.