Mental Illnesses During The Great Depression

Mental Illnesses

Throughout our country's existence there have been ups and downs, but after all the challenges our country always come out stronger. The Great Depression occurred when the stock-market crashed. It affected the working-class, the poor, and the elderly worse than anybody else. After the stock market crashed, the economy went declining and the income between 1929 and 1932 was cut by one-half. Mental illnesses (also called mental disorders) are health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion, or behavior. They are usually associated with distress and/or problems functioning and social, public, or family activities. They are treatable and the vast majority of individuals with mental illnesses continue to function in daily
Today however people now accept the mentally ill better in society, there are laws that protect them, and now they are treated properly according to their illness.

Back then there were many incorrect treatments and facilities to treat the mentally ill, but as time has passed the types of treatments have greatly improved. There were a variation of treatments for the sick in the 1930s, psychiatrist would use different versions of shock therapy, Insulin, Metrazol, and electroconvulsive therapy. All of these therapies usually included seizures because psychiatrist claimed that they could shock the illnesses out of them (Freeman). Hospitals or asylum's that were used were overcrowded because there were about one million patients. By the Great Depression the conditions were deteriorating and filthy due to the lack of funding (Freeman). The treatments they used in the past were very cruel, inhuman, and did not benefit the mentally ill in any aspect. Also the places where they were treated at were inferior to hospitals of people that were mentally
Not many laws were issued in the 1930s, regarding the mentally ill, but there were some passed in the 1910s that influenced the decisions of many in the 1930s. In 1911, the Mental Defectives Act was passed to allow people to admit themselves to mental hospitals voluntarily (Goldberg). Another act that was passed in 1913 was the Mental Deficiency Act (which was a way for the government to call them names) stated that mentally ill people were defective to the gene pool so they were separated into colonies (Goldberg). The laws that were issued back then did not protect them in anyway, shape, or form, but all these laws did was make them feel less human and made it easier to lock themselves up. Today under the Americans with Disability Act, this law protects people who have physical and mental disabilities from discrimination in employments, government activities and services, public accommodations and public transportation (Goldberg). Also under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, the US government can investigate faculties (such as institutions for people that are mentally ill) to make sure they are clean and the patients are getting appropriate care (Goldberg). The laws that are passed today actually help the mentally ill because they protect them from discrimination