The Reform of the Mentally Ill free essay sample

The Movement and Reform of the Mentally Ill Everyone has been to a hospital. Many people know what an asylum is. Some people know someone that has been to an asylum. Some people have visited an asylum. Before 1 845, those asylums were nothing like todays. The mentally ill were put in horrible conditions and were treated the same as murderers. The mentally ill reform movement changed that. It made sure that the mentally ill were treated with care, and some of the tactics that were made at that time are still used to this day.The mental reform movement was low to start, but when it started, its effects were immediate. The mentally ill were either taken care of by family, or buy privately owned businesses, that were horrible. Caparison and Asylum Reform) People that were mentally ill went into prisons instead of hospitals. (Prisons and Asylums) These prisons used the Auburn System, in this system the prisoners would be kept in isolation unless they were working. (Prisons and Asylums) This system was named after the Auburn State Prison. Prisons and Asylums) Eighty people kept in this system committed suicide or went mentally insane. (Prisons and Asylums) This started to make people think about the prisons, and who were in them. There werent that many people that were in this reform, but the ones that were involved were very good at helping the mentally insane. Enoch Wines and Theodore Dwight were one of the first people to point out the flaws in the current system. They showed that the mentally handicapped were abused.They pointed this out in a report they published which outlined the guidelines that werent getting any results, and giving new guidelines that would get results. A majority of these guidelines were revolutionary and hanged the way that the mentally ill were treated. (Prisons and Asylums) DRP. John Gal. was one of the first doctors to employ some of those guidelines in his working. These included using talk therapy, talking to patients, and to try to understand them, instead of punishing them.He also tried to avoid having lifelong stays, he tried to focus on making his patients prepared for the world and releasing them when they were prepared. (Prison and Asylum Reform) The movement was made mostly of hospital workers and doctors wanting better conditions for their patients. Most of these also were from the New England area, as this is where the majority of the influential people lived. (Prisons and Asylums) Throated Dixie was arguably one of the most influential people that were in this movement. She was one of the few people that actually took action against these monstrosities. Prisons and Asylums) She first found out about these conditions by going to teach at a prison. When she went to teach she found out that most of the people that were imprisoned, were there because they were mentally ill. (Prisons and Asylums) She did an investigation in Massachusetts from 1840-1841 to see owe the mentally ill were treated. Her investigation revealed many horrible things that were done to them because they couldnt do things they were instructed to do. (Prisons and Asylums) She did many other things to help the world too.She was made the Superintendent of Nurses during the Civil War on the Union side. (Prison and Asylum Reform) Throated Dixie died in 1887. She died in one of the state hospitals she helped to create her entire life. She died at the age of eighty-five. (Throated Dixie Begins Her Reform) There were many important events that occurred during the sasss that led o the mentally ill being treated. Throated Dixie did many speeches to various governments to try to convince them to fund various state hospitals and studies. One of her most famous speeches was called Memorial.She gave the speech to the Massachusetts legislature to try to convince them to fund one or more state run hospitals. (Throated Dixie Begins Her Reform) In her speech she described horrible conditions. One of the worst conditions described was a man chained to other dead bodies in a room with no heat in the dead of winter. (Throated Dixie Begins Her Reform) This speech was given many times to various states. Near the end of her career she even went to other countries to convince them to treat the mentally ill in different ways than they used to do. Throated Dixie Begins Her Reform) Throated Divas speeches led to many new methods to be implemented across the country, even internationally. One of her first bills that she got passed was in Massachusetts. The bill led to the introduction of various mental hospitals, and making existing ones bigger. (Prisons and Asylums) Her bill was passed in congress, but sadly, was vetoed by the president, Franklin Pierce in 1854. However, her speeches did lead to some other advances, one of these was the creation of the first state asylum in Illinois. Prisons and Asylums) Enoch Wines and Theodore Wines also made lasting effects in the community. Their intervention led to the creation of the Elmira Reformatory in 1876. They also managed to get their agenda for the mentally ill backed by the national congress in the city of Cincinnati (Prisons and Asylums) All of their efforts eventually led to a single, revolutionary bill passed, called, The Bill for the Benefit of the Mentally Insane. Sponsors and Asylums) This bill sold a total of 1 2,223,000 acres of federal land. The money made from this went towards the care and treatment of the mentally insane. ,000 of the acres were sold for treatments and care of the blind and deaf. This movement is remembered for bringing asylums into commonplace and for saving the mentally ill from horrible conditions. Caparison and Asylum Reform) People looked at the mentally ill, for the first time, as people that needed help, not people that needed to be punished for being them. This reform helped the creation of many asylums. In 1 880 there were 123 asylums in the United States. The Ignited States had some of the best asylums in the entire world by 1 885 because of this reform.The United States were one of the first countries to truly solve this problem and help end the horrible treatment Of the mentally ill.