The treatment of those who are vulnerable is infinitely telling about the values a country holds. The rapid decline of mental health institutions in the United States can be correlated to the rise in prison population and homelessness. America is a country with such advanced medical technology and supposed equal opportunity, and this would lead one to believe extensive resources are being poured into treatment and protection for those with mental illnesses, but this is not the case. With a disturbing history, people have a flawed idea of what inpatient mental health institutions would look like today, and this leads to a willingness to cut funding and ignore the problem. Mental health institutions in today’s world of ethics and medical treatments would be infinitely helpful to the millions suffering from mental illness. Since the “asylum” has become demonized, people have lost a desire to help advocate for mental illness treatment centers. The first psychiatric hospitals in the United States were built in the 1840s. A mental health advocate named Dorothea Dix was able to lobby for funding for these facilities, and subsequently, thirty-two hospitals were built. Unfortunately, due to lack of patient autonomy, these patients were largely taken advantage of. With innovations such as lobotomy and electroshock therapy, treatments which are hardly ever used today, patient’s endured torture-like treatments in these facilities. A drive for furthering research of mental disorders led patients to become a convenience sample for a wide array of unethical and heinous experimentation (Unite For Sight). Upon society catching wind of these horrible treatment practices, journalists like Nellie Bly exposed these facilities for their abuse and neglect towards patients. Investigative journalism and exposé pieces such as these ultimately led to the closing of many facilities (National Women’s History Museum). This left Americans to believe and accept mental health facilities to be a place of evil. In an overview of mental health in the early twentieth century, Jacob Darwin Hamblin, Professor of History at Oregon State University, sheds light on the history of mental health institutions.
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He claims the concept of mental illness treatment has grown controversial for historians since a book by Michel Foucault was published in 1965 called Madness and Civilization. This book argued mental institutions and prisons have been used by elites as a form of social control since the early eighteenth century. This viewpoint is thought to be a contributing factor that led to the disuse of inpatient mental health institutions in the United States. Prior to the twentieth century, inpatient mental health facilities were the focal point of treatment. Due to the fact that admission to this facilities was generally a long-term, with patients seldom ever leaving, the “asylums” were phased out over time and replaced with outpatient care facilities. The cruelty towards and incarceration of those with mental illness led to societal stigma not only for patients but towards mental health care facilities in general, which is a problem still seen today (Hamblin). The American inpatient mental health facility became demonized, which led to a mass reformation of the system. In an article written by William D. Spaulding, et al., University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the unintended consequences of the Mental Health Reform of the early twenty-first century are examined. The reform was a movement designed to switch from a medical model of treatment to a recovery model. The recovery model is thought to frame mental illness as a “disability to be overcome” rather than “a disease to be cured.” While this movement was started with good intentions, it resulted in homogenized treatment options for those with mental illness. The phasing-out of psychiatric …show more content…
In a thorough review of studies between 1980 and 1999, Shannon Kim, et al., University of Minnesota, the outcomes of deinstitutionalization for people with intellectual disabilities are explored. Intellectual disabilities, while separate from mental illness, were often treated in similar facilities. The closure of facilities beginning in the 1960s led to the deinstitutionalization of many people with mental illness and intellectual disabilities. The review concludes that those who are institutionalized see greater behavioral benefits from those who are not institutionalized or those who were displaced (Kim, et al.). The use of inpatient facilities and group homes is exceedingly helpful in the treatment of intellectual disability and mental illness alike, though they are becoming decreasingly
He claims the concept of mental illness treatment has grown controversial for historians since a book by Michel Foucault was published in 1965 called Madness and Civilization. This book argued mental institutions and prisons have been used by elites as a form of social control since the early eighteenth century. This viewpoint is thought to be a contributing factor that led to the disuse of inpatient mental health institutions in the United States. Prior to the twentieth century, inpatient mental health facilities were the focal point of treatment. Due to the fact that admission to this facilities was generally a long-term, with patients seldom ever leaving, the “asylums” were phased out over time and replaced with outpatient care facilities. The cruelty towards and incarceration of those with mental illness led to societal stigma not only for patients but towards mental health care facilities in general, which is a problem still seen today (Hamblin). The American inpatient mental health facility became demonized, which led to a mass reformation of the system. In an article written by William D. Spaulding, et al., University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the unintended consequences of the Mental Health Reform of the early twenty-first century are examined. The reform was a movement designed to switch from a medical model of treatment to a recovery model. The recovery model is thought to frame mental illness as a “disability to be overcome” rather than “a disease to be cured.” While this movement was started with good intentions, it resulted in homogenized treatment options for those with mental illness. The phasing-out of psychiatric …show more content…
In a thorough review of studies between 1980 and 1999, Shannon Kim, et al., University of Minnesota, the outcomes of deinstitutionalization for people with intellectual disabilities are explored. Intellectual disabilities, while separate from mental illness, were often treated in similar facilities. The closure of facilities beginning in the 1960s led to the deinstitutionalization of many people with mental illness and intellectual disabilities. The review concludes that those who are institutionalized see greater behavioral benefits from those who are not institutionalized or those who were displaced (Kim, et al.). The use of inpatient facilities and group homes is exceedingly helpful in the treatment of intellectual disability and mental illness alike, though they are becoming decreasingly