Titicut Follies
1)What are the norms in the Bridgewater State Hospital during the filming of this documentary? What social values do you think are represented by these norms?
Some of the norms in the Bridgewater State Hospital includes having the male patients remove all articles of clothing as demonstrated at the beginning of the film. The officers then went through each article of clothing digging into pockets and such. The officers then physically examined each patient asking them to lift their arms other limbs. I don’t believe discrimination due to race was an issue, since there were African Americans in the same vicinity as the white males. Also, the workers at the facility treat the patients as if they are not human beings. For example,
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He just piled on the all the wrongdoing of the patients but never was a plan of treatment or anything positive observed during these interviews. The workers of the facility appear to look like police officers which I am assuming is a tactic to scare the patients of the facility. These workers seem to making fun of the patients and are able to find humor in the disability of these individuals. They mistreat the mentally ill individuals especially verbally but also physically at times. I believe that the above demonstrates just how society viewed these induvial. They weren’t seen as human beings but some sort of entertainment in which you these facility workers could do anything with. One can also infer that families at that time did not want anything to with those who were seen as abnormal or …show more content…
As time goes on, the law has put more emphasis on facility just like Bridgewater State Hospital in which many of the actions of the facility workers can face legal consequences such as facing prison time, fines, lawsuits, and etc. Society has a better understanding of why certain people act the way that they do and being more knowledgeable about psychology and mental diseases allows us to have a different approach when dealing with these topics or these individuals. In today’s era, there are many normal individuals who are willing to stand up for those who do not have a voice of their own. I believe that this change in one’s ability to stand up for another individual or group of individuals is what brought about change to the medical environment of those who are mentally
During the 1960’s, America’s solution to the growing population of mentally ill citizens was to relocate these individuals into mental state institutions. While the thought of isolating mentally ill patients from the rest of society in order to focus on their treatment and rehabilitation sounded like a smart idea, the outcome only left patients more traumatized. These mental hospitals and state institutions were largely filled with corrupt, unknowledgeable, and abusive staff members in an unregulated environment. The story of Lucy Winer, a woman who personally endured these horrors during her time at Long Island’s Kings Park State Hospital, explores the terrific legacy of the mental state hospital system. Ultimately, Lucy’s documentary, Kings
In other words, the patient was sick because of his or her time in the institution. I find this interesting because without a more human telling of the story by Grob, it is hard to gauge if the psychosis of patients deteriorated in general with the length of stay in the institution and if because of this, did that impact the policies or methods of practice? I believe it would be similar to what they are finding now with the orphans of Romania in the 1980’s who were raised in institutions with only basic and minimal human contact and now are mostly homeless and unable to function in society or inmates in prison who have spent years behind bars and then are let go into the general population. History has proven that people struggle with trying to acclimate back into the general population. As a result of this by the 1980’s one-third of the homeless population in the United States were said to be seriously mentally ill. (PBS, "Timeline: Treatments for Mental
The 1930s was a tough time for all of the mentally ill people. They were not treated the way that they do now. The mentally ill were called names like satans child, or they were not expected or very frowned upon in many religions. So because of all of the people who were mentally ill they started to create asylums. With these asylums they could hold almost all of the mentally ill people during that time. All of the asylums were overcrowded and sometimes there would be around 1 million patients. WIth all of the people in these asylums the staff and doctors became very understaffed so the patients living within the asylums were not treated how they should have been. Then doctors had found ways that they thought could cure these mentally ill people, whether it would be cruel to them or not. The treatments ran from major brain surgery to taking baths for multiple days.
In the 1800’s people with mental illnesses were frowned upon and weren't treated like human beings. Mental illnesses were claimed to be “demonic possessions” people with mental illnesses were thrown into jail cells, chained to their beds,used for entertainment and even killed. Some were even slaves, they were starved and forced to work in cold or extremely hot weather with chains on their feet. Until 1851, the first state mental hospital was built and there was only one physician on staff responsible for the medical, moral and physical treatment of each inmate. Who had said "Violent hands shall never be laid on a patient, under any provocation.
In the 1950’s, it was common so see people with frightened, uneasy, rejecting, and even arrogant attitudes towards people with mental illnesses. They considered those who were mentally ill as psychotic, violent and frightening. In the today, people are more accepting and understanding when it comes to mental illness, but some people are still ignorant with their responses, just like back then. In the 1950’s mental health treatment was typically provided in large state hospitals and other intuitions. Back then, topics like mental health were kept hush hush; people much rather putting those who were mentally in away in a state facility where someone else could monitor them. Today, people are more understanding.
As with any employment policy or practice, an appearance policy must be implemented and enforced without regard to an individual’s race, color, gender, national origin, religion, disability, age, or other protected status. A policy governing dress and appearance based on the business needs of an employer that is applied fairly and consistently and does not have a disproportionate effect on any protected class will generally be upheld if challenged in court. By examining some of the more common legal challenges to dress codes and how courts have resolved the disputes, health care managers can avoid many potential problems. This article, the second part of a 3-part examination of dress codes and appearance policies, focuses on the issue of gender under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Pertinent court cases that provide guidance for employers are
Movies and shows like, “Girl Interrupted” and “American Horror Story: Insane Asylum” portray hospitals in a way that has truth to it, however they portray the people in a negative way. It has become more known to society that the hospitals that the mentally ill are subjected to living in are not a good place to be. However, the stigma that mentally ill people are dangerous and cannot overcome their illness is still widely
For many decades the mentally ill or insane have been hated, shunned, and discriminated against by the world. They have been thrown into cruel facilities, said to help cure their mental illnesses, where they were tortured, treated unfairly, and given belittling names such as retards, insane, demons, and psychos. However, reformers such as Dorothea Dix thought differently of these people and sought to help them instead. She saw the inhumanity in these facilities known as insane asylums or mental institutions, and showed the world the evil that wandered inside these asylums. Although movements have been made to improve conditions in insane asylums, and were said to help and treat the mentally ill, these brutally abusive places were full of disease and disorder, and were more like concentration camps similar to those in Europe during WWII than hospitals.
Continuing budget cuts on mental health care create negative and detrimental impacts on society due to increased improper care for mentally ill, public violence, and overcrowding in jails and emergency rooms. Origins, of mental health as people know it today, began in 1908. The movement initiated was known as “mental hygiene”, which was defined as referring to all things preserving mental health, including maintaining harmonious relation with others, and to participate in constructive changes in one’s social and physical environment (Bertolote 1). As a result of the current spending cuts approaching mental health care, proper treatment has declined drastically. The expanse of improper care to mentally ill peoples has elevated harmful threats of heightened public violence to society.
The institutions were known as psychiatric hospitals rather than mental hospitals. Occupational therapists were employed there to help prepare patients for life and work outside the hospitals, short-term patients did better than long-term patients because they hadn’t been away from the rest of the world as long as the long-term patients had been. In the 1950s, people general feared and rejected people with mental illnesses. Mentally ill people were considered psychotic by most people. People believed that the mentally ill were violent and dangerous which is probably why they were feared. Parents of children who were mentally ill wanted to get involved so they started an organization for a Forum school, which was a school for the mentally ill children. Several factors were responsible for this organization: 1.Widespread of children with an IQ of below 50, 2.A lack of community services for retarded people, 3.Long waiting list for admission to institutions, 4.Parental dissatisfaction with the condition of many institutions, 5.Leaders believing mutual assistance could bring benefits for public relations, exchange of information, and political actions, and last 6.The assistance of a few key professionals. The Forum school was established in 1954 and is still active to this day. It was hard for the public to distinguish a mental illness from ordinary unhappiness and worry and
Describes life within a psychiatric hospital. Fascinating account of diagnosis and treatment with facility. Portrait of the inner workings of the psyche. Treatment controversies and economic pressures.
Today’s society protects against discrimination through laws, which have been passed to protect minorities. The persons in a minority can be defined as “a group having little power or representation relative to other groups within a society” (The Free Dictionary). It is not ethical for any person to discriminate based on race or ethnicity in a medical situation, whether it takes place in the private settings of someone’s home or in a public hospital. Racial discrimination, in a medical setting, is not ethical on the grounds of legal statues, moral teachings, and social standings.
Mental illness is a disease that is misunderstood, miscommunicated, and viewed as predominantly negative in our society. Even in ancient times, anyone thought to be mentally ill was locked away in a facility for fear that they were a danger to others. Sometimes, the mentally ill person was even thought to even be possessed. The public’s view on mental health has improved with time and education, but the mental health stigmas still exist. Being someone who works full time within a behavioral health unit, my perception of mental health and the public’s perspective of mental health significantly differ.
Advocates for people with mental illnesses have urged the government
The program aimed at treating mentally ill patients within the community itself rather than keeping and treating them at mental hospitals; and state mental hospitals were seen as institutions that deprived the mentally ill patients their freedom to interact with family and community members within the society. (Harvey). The deinstitutionalization program failed miserably because the goals that it promised were never reached and it actually somewhat isolated people from their families. “In essence the whole program has failed to achieve its objectives and has led to mentally ill individual suffering in the boulevards and dungeons, as well as in the shelter homes, and beggar's homes…” (Harvey). The program left the mentally ill so desperate for help that they got themselves arrested because they couldn’t afford to pay to go to a mental hospital since in prison mental health care is