Thank you for your Spotlight series on the care of the mentally ill in Massachusetts (“The broken covenant,’’ Page A1, Aug. 28). Throughout the 1980s, the Massachusetts Alliance for the Mentally Ill continually warned legislators and policy makers about what would happen if the state sold off hospital lands, initially obtained through the advocacy of Dorothea Dix, and inordinately privatized inpatient and outpatient services. Without both, there is no lifeline, no continuity, no hope.

In the late ’80s, the Alliance sued the state for reallocating funds through the Executive Office for Administration and Finance. This office, no matter the administration, continually talks about so-called savings in the budget, but very seldom about the costs on human beings.

The 1980s were also the decade, led by President Reagan, when privatization took off. I recall that when speaking to a group of mental health professionals at the time, at the Kennedy School of Government, their discussions were more about costs and savings than about compassionate clinical treatment. Physicians were becoming businessmen.

Increasingly, after decades of ongoing cuts, changing priorities, reallocations, and increased privatization, we are seeing the results of failed public policies for the mentally disabled. Where today is the political leadership for compassionate care? As human beings, the mentally disabled — and all of us — are more than simply dollar signs.

Geoffrey Brahmer

Arlington

The writer was executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance for the Mentally Ill from 1986 to 1990.