The closure of the old hospital asylums in Britain was driven by psychiatric optimism, moral outrage at overcrowding and poor quality of care as well as by concerns about the cost of maintaining the old buildings. Initial results were promising: patients discharged from the asylum experienced a better quality of life with few adverse outcomes. At the same time, mental health care became more multidisciplinary and reached out to people with less disabling conditions. Problems emerged when the asylums could no longer accept new referrals of people with enduring disability whose needs for care were publicly visible and who were stuck on acute wards. Community residential facilities were unwilling to accept people with challenging behaviours and the prevailing social model was one of a progressive movement towards independence that spoke against the provision of long-stay accommodation. This left ambulatory mental health teams to provide intensive support that nevertheless failed to prevent tragedies including suicide and homicide. The media and politicians claimed community care had failed and demanded more powers to enforce treatment.