In the 1930s, mentally ill individuals were treated harsh forms of therapy and drugs. In modern day, the mentally ill are being treated with safer forms of therapy and more efficient forms of prescription medicine. For example, the mentally ill now have many different choices of therapy, such as psychotherapy, medication, hospitalization, support groups, and peer support. Psychotherapy is a form of therapy in which individuals talk with a psychologist that help them express their feelings and find ways in which they can learn how to deal with how they act, thoughts, symptoms, stresses, and goals. In addition to this, individuals may consider seeing a psychiatrist to be given prescription drugs for their illness that help manage symptoms. They may also consider admitting themselves into a hospital to have close watch over them, and receive the proper care they need (“Mental Health Treatments”). Lastly, they may also consider seeking the help of support groups and the support of other peers. An example of this would be support groups across the United States, such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Both of these support groups meet with different individuals that are experiencing the same feelings as each other, and come up with ways to aid in their journey to getting better (Carney). The various options of therapy that a…
Instead of this approach, he began a therapy that included close and friendly contact with the patients, talking about their personal difficulties, along with a program of meaningful activities. Pinel’s moral, psychiatric therapy was the first attempt at giving mentally ill patients individual psychotherapy. He was said to be gentle, understanding, and overall he had a good will when it came to his therapeutic practices. He was not in favor of violence, but would use force feeding or a straitjacket if need be. The patients were now in a practice where physical exercise, personal hygiene and a helpful program for each individual was valued. Pineal was dedicated to making sure that the infirmary personal were given proper training and the proper administration of the institution for the mentally ill.…
As a class, we watched the movie, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which is regarded as a classic film that left a lasting impact on how viewers view treatments of various mental illnesses. The procedures such as lobotomies, and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) were harsh and give to patients without any thought to the lasting effects on their minds. The treatments seemed a way to keep the patients under control. After seeing the movie, the audiences viewed the treatments for mental illness as dangerous, inhumane and used with abandonment. The show also brought to light how patients were treated in a large mental institutions, making them question how awful mental healthcare was and how much it needed to improve. The film depicts the several psychology phenomena.…
The societal view point in the beginning was people who were mentally ill were treated as if they were physically ill. In hospitals and they lived in atrocious conditions and were treated with brutality and cruelty; customary treatment methods was bleeding, restraint, and cold showers. Then occupational therapy, amusements, and exercise were introduced. Over the years the bad treatment in hospitals was closed…
Given the number of incarcerated inmates who suffer from some form of mental illness, there are growing concerns and questions in the medical field about treatment of the mentally ill in the prison system. When a person with a mental illness commits a crime or break the law, they are immediately taken to jail or sent off to prison instead of being evaluated and placed in a hospital or other mental health facility. “I have always wondered if the number of mentally ill inmates increased since deinstitutionalization” Since prison main focus is on the crimes inmates are incarcerated; the actual treatment needed for the mentally ill is secondary. Mentally ill prisoners on the surface may appear to be just difficult inmates depending on the degree of outward actions being displayed. For instance, a paranoid inmate may get into a fight simply because he believes he is being followed and/or stalked by other prisoners. It becomes quite clear that the solution for the treatment of the mentally ill is not “Incarceration”.…
Prior to the Renaissance period, Enlightenment thinkers urged the reformation of treating mental illnesses, which many treatments were used that today would be looked at as appalling or astounding in treating the mentally ill. German doctor Johann Weyer (1515-1588), the first physician to specialize in mental illness, believed that the mind was as susceptible to sickness as the body was (Comer, 2011). According to Goodwin (2008), Phillipe Pinel (1745-1826) introduced humane reforms in Paris, which established the asylum (type of institution that first became popular in the 16th century to provide care for those with mental disorders, which became virtual prisons) for both men and women known as Bircêtre asylum (1793) and Salpêtrière asylum (1795). Pinel also introduced “moral treatment” to improve institutional living conditions, reduction of physical restraint of patients, and improvement of patient 's behavior. At the same time, Benjamin Rush introduced a medical model explaining mental illness and also developed an approach to treat and emphasize “improving” the condition of patients’ blood and circulatory system, which advocated the “bloodletting” as a cure. He believed that in order to reduce the hypertension in the brain 's blood vessels, blood should be removed through the opening of the veins until a person reaches a tranquil state. Rush also created two devices to calm the blood, which included the gyrator and the tranquilizer to redistribute blood toward the head and reduce pulse rate (Goodwin, 2008).…
hospitals for the mentally ill. Early 18th century the Mental Health Reform was led by Philippe Pinel of…
During the 1900s people viewed mental illness as a disease of individual weakness or a spiritual disease, in which the mentally ill were sent to asylums. This was a temporary solution in hope to remove “lunatics” from the community. This caused a severe overcrowding, which led to a decline in patient care and reviving the old procedures and medical treatments. Early treatments to cure mental illness were really forms of torture. Asylums used wrist and ankle restraints, ice water baths, shock machines, straightjackets, electro-convulsive therapy, even branding patients, and the notorious lobotomy and “bleeding practice”. These early treatments seen some improvement in patients, although today this eras method of handling the mentally ill is considered barbaric, the majority of people were content because the “lunatics” were no longer visible in society.…
Mental health disorders can affect anyone at any given time in any age group or demographic. Disabilities can range from mild to the most severe and characteristically, run the gamut. Centuries ago, there was a stigma with mental health where imprisonment was thought to be the logical solution. Nineteenth century insane asylums held the promise of compassionate rehabilitation; unfortunately, lapses in funding prohibited this dream from becoming a reality (“Kirkbride Buildings”, 2001-2012). Dr. Kirkbride, advocate of the tenets of Moral Treatment, foresaw a treatment facility that was idealistic in grandeur and architecture where he hoped to create a place of healing for the mentally ill. With plenty of fresh air and open spaces, “these asylums replaced cruder methods of coping with the mentally ill, such as confining them to prisons or poorhouses where they were often abused and their special needs were rarely met” (“Kirkbride Buildings”, 2001-2012).…
Hippocrates (c.460-377BC) made such an impression on medical history that his name is still very much associated with medicine today. All newly qualified doctors are required to take what is called the ‘Hippocratic Oath’ which is named after him. Hippocrates was the first person to say that people become ill because of scientific reasons and was therefore seen as the father of medicine (Trueman, C). Moving on a few hundred years, Galen (c.130-200AD), doctor to the gladiators viewed mental illness as something that could be fixed with diet, exercise and natural remedies. This period saw mental illness in terms of a medical model (Armstrong, S). During medieval times when the church was very powerful, disease was seen as the work of the devil. Anyone seen to be deviating from the norms of society were tortured, hanged and burned at the stake. This is demonstrated by The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 - at a time when a small pox epidemic and threats from warring tribes created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion, 150 men and women from surrounding towns were put into prisons, their names were 'cried out' by tormented young girls as a cause of their pain. This resulted in 19 of the 150…
Dix said that the mentally ill needed treatment, not punishment. Eventually, Dorothea Dix wrote about her gathered information about the unbearable acts that were seen. After reading her report, lawmakers agreed to create asylums publically for the mentally ill.…
The deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill began with the introduction of the use of psychotropic drugs for mental health treatment in the 1950’s. It was embraced as a way of saving money because the patients would be able to be treated on an outpatient basis and in theory also be able to function in the world while on medications. This has not been as successful of a plan as originally intended. Crystal Riberio makes this point by stating, “The programs thought to replace care given in institutions were not nearly adequate. These programs, attempts to place the mentally ill back in society to be helped by the community members, day programs, and medications were not…
A more moral treatment began in Europe prior to the 1800s when treating people with mental dysfunction emphasized moral guidance, humane, and respectful treatment. Asylums were built to care for people with mental illness. Moral treatment in the U.S. began at this time led by Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania and later Dorothea Dix.…
Reforms in prisons and insane asylums began to take flight in America as Dorothea Dix, an American reformer, began advocating for safe places for the mentally unstable to reside. Her pursuit of such an institution began in 1941. Dix helped to form five phychiatric hospitals in America. Phychiatric hospitals were given a bad reputation when some hospitals were not treating the patients, rather their main concern was giving the mentally unstable a place to stay where they would not be a disturbance to the rest of society. Also during this time, prisons were holding anyone who had commited massive crimes to those who were unworthy of arrest. Men, women, and children were all detained the same prisons despite the severity of their crimes. Because…
Often called “The Father of Modern Psychiatry,” he composed the first textbook regarding diseases of the mind. He personally believed that the causes of mental disabilities were complications with the blood vessels in the brain (Ozarin). Unlike most people of his time, he pursued medical treatment for patients because he did not accredit their mental diseases to moral offenses. “Mental illness [must] be freed from moral stigma, and be treated with medicine rather than moralizing” (“Pennsylvania Hospital History…”). Rush’s career and medical intentions were to humanize the way that patients in the psychiatric ward were treated (“Benjamin Rush…”). These methods included, hot and cold baths, bleeding, purging, and some of his own invention: the tranquilizer chair, which was put in place of the straitjacket while still coercing the patient to complete a specific task that they would not normally do based on their psychological condition, and the gyrator which was, “based on the principle of centrifugal action to increase cerebral circulation…” (“Benjamin Rush…”). Benjamin Rush was the first man in America to put the needs of the patient first and he was the man who actually reformed the manner of which patients in mental hospitals were…