In the 1800s, the mentally ill and prisoners were forced to live in wretched conditions and often were not even treated as regular citizens. Patients of mental institutions were operated on so they were more controllable. The mentally insane that did not live at home were kept in prisons, few were in faulty poorhouses, and even fewer were in hospitals. Many hospitals had mental wards, but they were inadequate for patients. In the 1840s, Dorothea Dix visited many prisons where the deranged were kept and found that these conditions were unsuitable for living quarters (“Dorothea Dix Biography”).
The insane are known to have been cursed with unclean spirits ever since the beginning of America who takes its views from the Old World. It was only during the Second Great Awakening that people, Christian activists and often women, sought to reform the prisons and asylums. For Americans, asylums are now remnants of the past; the mentally ill are now bestowed the right to live normal lives and they are now even given the choice to decide if they wish to seek help and take medication. Even so, it is undeniable that people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are unwillingly trapped inside a mind often not their own. Some of them, if left alone and uncared for, face dangers in society.
Many of the “patients” were sent to the institutions for varying reasons that did not require medical attention. This increased the patient to doctor ratio, and slowed other patient’s chances of getting the medical attention they needed, even if it was not truly helping their illness. The term mentally ill is defined as “continued display of unsound judgements and actions that do not fit into society’s values” (Swart) and “according the the Weschler Adult Scale III, mental retardation is at an IQ of 70” (“A Step”). “The Institutions were overcrowded with people who couldn’t really get better” (Payne). “Many of the patients got in because they weren’t wanted, they had phobias or panic attacks, or they were looking for a home” (Mental).
Asylums for the “Insane” In the 1830’s to 1840’s there was a pursuit by activists to reconstruct the penal system in the United States. These activists advocated for prison reform towards the treatment of incarcerated poor and mentally insane populations. During this time, prisons were used to contain criminals as well as certain Americans deemed undesirable members of society. The prison reform activist believe there should be some type of instructional rehabilitation offered to the prisoners instead of confinement.
The purpose of psychiatric hospitals is to assess people who suffer from mental illness and provide mental health treatment. However, through the documentary and the story, it is significant to note that the mistreatment of patients who suffered mental illness, is not significantly changed since the 20th century. Some inhumane treatments are the Electroconvulsive Therapy and brain surgery that cut off parts of the human brain. The horrible side effects are permanent damage to
The issues of mental illness have been around from the start of human existence. Mental illness is considered any psychiatric disorder that cause untypical behavior. Questioning happened more in the 1930’s when more problems came around and how to fix it began to arise. Mental illness included the diseases, the cures, One of the illnesses that was very common was Schizophrenia. This is a” long-term mental disease that affects how your brain works.
Asylums, sometimes a form of natural treatment, can be visited by mentally ill patients and their families seeking housing and protection. Hysteria and madness, types of mental illnesses, were becoming more widely spoken about, resulting in the formation of asylums to house and medicate the mentally ill. The Elizabethan era was the first to put widespread public attention to the problems posed by the mentally disabled (Rushton 34). New books about mental disabilities and how the mind works, such as The Anatomy of the Mind and The Passions of the Mind, were published, promoting new ideas, which led to a period of fascination relating to the human mind, and what causes these types of mental illnesses (Hackett 62). Psychiatric patients, referred to as the pauper insane, were even harder to treat than someone with a physical illness because the insane person didn’t want the treatment (Szasz 103-104).
In 1920, Major General Jennings wrote to the Secretary of Bombay that the “daily average sick was 580 as compared with 614 in the previous years. ”8 In addition, he reported that “the chief causes of deaths at the several Mental Hospitals were Tuberculosis 17, Diarrhea 14, Anemia 9, Diseases of the Heart 13, Dysentery 10, and Pneumonia 11.”8 These records reveal important information about the conditions of mental asylums. First, Major General Jennings word choice implies that the term lunatic asylums has been changed to “Mental Hospitals. ”8
Mental Illness in the 1800's: something needed to be done If you had a mental illness in the 1800's you'd be put into an asylum which usually had horrible conditions. Thanks to Dorothea Dix that is not how we treat mentally ill people today. Dorothea Dix reformed society by showing the gov. how people were treated in these asylums and wanted to make the conditions better by, for example putting in libraries.
After nearly a century of housing thousands of people with mental and physical disabilities, “The Hospital for the Mentally Insane” located in Gardington, West Virginia has been shut down. The patients who were formerly housed in the institution are being de-institutionalized, rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. Meanwhile, further research of the treatment methods of patient care are being investigated by authorities. “The horrors of this institution are indescribable.”
By the 1960’s many new things were going on policies were changed and treatment was moved into the communities. Institutions were becoming more decentralized by having smaller outbuildings that cut cost about one-third compared to its larger centralized facilities. Advocates also suggested that the care for the patience’s got better as well. The Kennedy administration embraced the recommendation made by the task force on mental health under NIMH leadership. Their recommendation was to have each community to deliver a range of services including comprehensive mental health to eliminate the need for mental institutions.
Introduction Prior to the mid-1960 virtually all mental health treatment was provided on an inpatient basis in hospitals and institutions. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was established with its primary focus on deinstitutionalizing mentally ill patients, and shutting down asylums in favor of community mental health centers. It was a major policy shift in mental health treatment that allowed patients to go home and live independently while receiving treatment, (Pollack & Feldman, 2003). As a result of the Act, there was a shift of mentally ill persons in custodial care in state institutions to an increase of the mentally ill receiving prosecutions in criminal courts.
Asylums weren’t always like the ones we imagine today, full of harm in and inhumane acts. However, with the increase of asylums in the 1900s, the average amount of patients house increased from 115 in 1806 to over 1000 in the 1900s. The optimism Once present among the people that those with mental abnormalities could be cured vanished, no longer did people believe in a cure for abnormal behavior. Instead of asylums aiming to rehabilitate, they became a place where the “crazy” or “insane” go to live out the rest of their lives
According to the oxford dictionary the definition of ethics is “a moral set of principles that governs a person’s behaviour or a conducting of an activity”, in simple terms they affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. ref This essay, will explore the evolution within the ethics of mental health dating from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. This will cover the ethics surrounding how society viewed mental health and the Acts that were put in place within this period, in addition the medical procedures and medication used for those who were suffering with mental health issues. Mental health, in the early1940s to late 1950s had noticeably two ethical theories that dominate this time period these are Deontology, “which emphasises the course of action taken as the major consideration, regardless of the out-come”, the opposing theory is called Teleology “which emphasises the out-come as the most important factor determining whether an action is right or wrong”
When people hear the words, “mental illness,” they think of insane asylums and psychiatric wards, but that’s not necessarily the case. Yes, back in the 1800’s they did have asylums for people with mental disorders. But that was when doctors didn’t fully understand mental illnesses and disorders. But currently, doctors are able to comprehend illnesses and disorders.
