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The Pros And Cons Of Deinstitutionalization

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Deinstitutionalization is defined as exchanging in-house, long term psychiatric hospitals with community health facilities for people who struggle with mental disorders or developmental disabilities.[1] This came through reducing the total number of people in mental institutions by releasing them, shortening the stay, decreasing admissions and readmissions. It also changed the admission procedures to decrease dependency on the institution itself.[2] The results of deinstitutionalization have been good for some however, there have been negative consequences as well. Even though those with mild mental issues have been successfully treated with medicine within the community, releasing mass amounts of mentally struggling patients has not been …show more content…

Prior to this, electric shock and lobotomies were the primary treatment of the mentally ill.[2] This new medicine, along with federal funding to community facilities and the belief by many that institutions were cruel and inhumane, fueled the release of the mentally ill into America’s communities. “In 1955, the number of those hospitalized grew to an all time high of 558,000 and they suffered from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression. Many had organic brain diseases such as dementia and brain damage from trauma.”[2] This number would begin to decline, leaving many without help and institutions forced to close their doors for lack of …show more content…

“Since 1976, there have been 20 mass murders a year on average. J. Reid Meloy, Ph.D., is a forensic psychologist who has studied them. He found that mass murderers suffer mental illnesses that range from chronic psychotic disturbances, schizophrenia, and paranoid disorders. They have the paranoid, narcissistic, and schizoid traits of personality disorders.”[2] He believes that these were not just average people who snapped, but were people who suffered for years of untreated mental illness. Added to the problems are those who have become homeless because they do not have family, cannot afford their medicine and lack the resources to help themselves. The jails also house many mentally ill people who have failed in attempts to function in society. The percentage is believed to be around 16% or 378,000

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Institutionalization in the 1800’s was Dorothea Dix was a mover and shaker, who together with a few others in her era was responsible for alleviating the plight of the mentally ill. In the 1800's she found them in jails, almshouses and underneath bridges. She then began her major lobby with legislators and authority figures across the land, to get hospitals built in what was then known as the "Moral Treatment Era. " Things did get better, with ups and downs, of course. She visited widely, in the Midwest state hospitals in Independence and Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and Winnebago in Wisconsin ca.

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Mass murderers and serial killers are nothing new to today’s society. We learn about them in TV shows, books, research papers, in our classes, etc. Psychologists have spent decades trying to uncover the truth behind these killers’ madness. Serial killers vary in their behaviors, techniques, desires, mental illnesses and their personal lives. Have you ever heard of the Tamiami Trail Killer?

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Deinstitutionalization did not end up working for the betterment of the patients because even though the Kennedy administration's ideas were trying to help the mentally ill by having smaller institutions so they were more personal they failed because making these mentally ill people go out into society before they were ready and it caused more problems. Another reason deinstitutionalization failed was because there was very little funding for these patients and since there was no funding there was no housing or medications for these

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657 Words | 3 Pages

The 1800’s made steps towards equal opportunity and Civil rights, but laws had not fully established in comparison to today. Medical law makers quickly adopted the concept and between the 1960-1980’s large state-operating mental-health hospitals systematically dismantled. Problems generated, however when funding for the proposed community mental health centers was never implemented. (Reluctant Welfare State,

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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”).

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Statistics show that serial killers in the United States often kill for fun and financial gains. (Serial Killer) In class we have been learning about serial killers and the psychological disorders that cause them to carry out the murders they commit. Andrea Yates mental stability and religious views altered her ability of life and caused five young children to lose their lives

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Many psychiatric hospitals have closed down, which the only option left for the mentally ill was to be taken in jails and prisons. In the documentary we learn

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There is a rough estimate of around 60 percent of incarcerated individuals that are diagnosed with mental illnesses. This is due to what could be called the criminalization of the mentally ill. Mass incarceration has been America’s response to poverty and mental illness. An estimated 40 percent of the mentally ill Americans end up in the criminal justice system. Around 2 million people with mental illness go to jail every year, that’s ten times more people in jail than in state funding psychiatric treatment.

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He went on to explain that the people in those institutions are very limited to the things they are able to do and the choices that they can make. Simple choices such as what to eat, what to wear, and what to do in your freetime are made for the mentally ill by the workers. The patients are forced to take medication against their will and are also limited to everyday things such as being outside. There is so much dehumanization that occurs that the mental hospital doesn't feel like a place where the patients are receiving help. Instead, the patients themselves refer to being at the mental hospital as “doing time” as they would in

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755 Words | 4 Pages

How they are perceived, and their of lack ability to meet the expectations of society was interpreted as mental illness. Although they are all institutionalized for different reasons, the one they all have in common is society. McMurphy, for example, was admitted for being a “psychopath”, while others felt that they were not able to function and signed themselves up voluntarily. Consequently, society sets up expectations for what is viewed as normal. If these expectations are not met or if someone is different they walk the fine line of sanity vs.

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James, who had “no befits or insurance or any idea where he might find a doctor” (51). Gary Busch, who was tragically shot after appearing “to be experiencing a psychiatric crisis” (52). This helps to put a name and a person to the “over one million people suffer(ing) from mental illness” (53) in New York City. This number was staggering to me, as well as the fact that “close to 8,000 mentally ill people” are in NY prisons or jails. It was sad to read as well “that, nationwide, state spending on treatment for the seriously mentally ill is one-third less than it was in the 1950s” (55).

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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.

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In today’s society, when someone mentions a mental institution most people picture a dark, dirty, and horrendous hospital like structure. While this image may at times be accurate, this was not always the case. Mental institutions, otherwise known as asylums, have a past full of ups and downs. During different time periods standards for care in these facilities fluctuated from proper care to improper care. With more of an understanding of these mental abnormalities we have a better chance of finding solutions and resolving them.

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There are also cost to the communities, people with untreated MH issues end up in hospitals, shelters or jail. “In 2011, there were about 240,000 seriously mentally ill people in prisons and 125,000 in jails, an additional 770,000 seriously mentally ill are on probation or parole. There are now more than ten times more seriously mentally ill persons in jails and prisons than in state hospitals” (mentalillnesspolicy.org).

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Even of the patients are mentally disable and some cant express clearly, they still manage to form a strong social bond with the regular people. During the 1970’s President Kennedy passed a health reform act in which psychiatry was reevaluated, and insane asylums were shutting down. The given number 160,000 was lowest at the time as more asylums designed to isolate patients were converting to a therapeutic haling centers

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