We Should Bring Back Psychiatric Asylums

Mrs. Cuevas

English 1301

30th April 2018

Research Paper

“Mental health needs a great deal of attention. It’s the final Taboo and it needs to be faced and dealt with”~ Adam Ant. In other words, this quote is trying to say that mental health or illness is not a game, it is a sickness that needs to be treated with patience and care. This can be done by someone like a doctor or an expert who have the characteristics to treat the mentally ill. Throughout the world, the mental insane are placed in jails or wonder around the streets not knowing who they are, or what to do. This is because, mental institutions or psychiatric asylums were shut down back in the 20th century between the years 1955 and 1994. However, there has been an argument stating

whether psychiatric asylums should be brought back to the United States…..
To begin with, Psychiatric institutions first started back in the year 1752. The first asylum that ever began to care for the mentally ill was The Quakers in Philadelphia. This “hospital provided rooms in the basement complete with shackles attached to the walls to house a small number of mentally ill patients” (Diseases of the Mind). After a couple of years maybe one or two the housing got larger, the number of patients increased and the demand for additional space was unstoppable. As a result, a new hospital for the mentally ill was opened in 1856 named Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. (Disease of the Mind). On October 10, 1859 the new name for the original building changes from The Quakers in Philadelphia to the Department for Females and the new hospital turns into the Department for Males. After a couple of years, year year1895 for the first time the female’s attendants attend the serve in The Men’s Department (Pennsylvania Hospital History).
Over the following years, these intuitions grew and improved as more patients were introduced to the mentally ill hospitals. In the early 1840s people who were psychotic or placed into an asylum were not given the opportunity to leave. However, what really happened behind the closed doors of these psychiatric asylums? In the article History of Mental Health Treatment, Dual Diagnosis, it reads about a woman in Boston, her name was Dorothea Dix and her treatment in a traditional mental health institution. She wrote to the General Assembly of North Carolina how “the mentally ill were chained to their beds, kept in filthy conditions and even abused”. Although, she is saying all of this plpshe wishes to open multiple institutions that are committed to care for the mentally ill. In addition, she wishes that these institutions provide work, recreation and understanding to those who are feebly minded (History of Mental Health Treatment). In the article, Inside The Nations Largest Mental Institution article, it states '" He says there are ants in his cereal,'' a case worker explaind.'' This means that the patient who was stabilized into this institution was complaining that there was stuff in his food, and did not want to eat it. By this, we can infer that the victims from these institutions had to eat something, that included addition stuff like ants, and ceratain chemicals. This is just another example of the cruelty and bad treatment of these mentally ill patients.
Equally important, what was the promising care system that these institutions promised the mentally ill? Well in the article History of Psychiatric Hospitals it reads the important mission that private hospitals for the mentally ill promised back in the early-eighteenth-cetury. The important mission that this institution provided was care and correct treatment. for example, the care was built into finding recovery and a cure that required quietness inside and outside the hosspital. Peacefullness inorder for them to feel comfortable and oppourtinities that allowed them to stay in these asylums for a shorter period instead of forever. However, this was not the case " Placing the mentally ill in facilities alllowed members of the general pubic to ignore the problem "( History of Mental Health Treatment ). " Private hospitals, in fact, depended on the money paid by wealthier families to care for the mentally ill..".This means that after, a while the families forgot about the mentall ill and started to forget to pay the paymennets in order to care for these insane victims. As a result, this could have been a cause of maltratment and rational behaviors. (History of Psychiatric Hospitals).
Luckly evereything came to an end in the early 1950s, when the state started releasng the mentally ill from instituions and into communities. We typically hear the frase " There is always something bad in something good"~unkown, except in this case there was a problem and a large one. In the article, Inside The Nation's Largest Mental Institution it elaborates by stating what happens inside this asylum and its consequences. "... thousands of mentally ill ended up on the streets, where they became involved in criminal activity. Their crimes, though frequently minor, led them in droves to jails.."(Inside The Nation's Largest Mental Instituiton). This asylum is called 'Twin Towers', but it is actually a country jail, however, it holds the mentally ill for crimes that were commited as a result of their mental illnes. Dr. Arakel Davtian, one of the psychiatrists gives an example about a male who was arrested for giving false identity. Moreover, when the victim reported to court the judge asked him a serious of questions when the judge said "He is incompetent to stand trial". As a result, the individual was sent to jail where he is locked up like many others for un rational behavior. Luckly, the workers have began treating these patients for schizophrenia. On the other side,of this jail is a wing called a "crazy wing" where the patients who are in high observation are located. Their actions consist of flushing down ponchos, clogging the toilets flooding the areas and even tried harming themselves. At times, these patients refuse to change and stand naked as they look out the window (Inside The Nation's Largest Menal Institution).
Therefore, in order to give these patients the care they deserve we should bring back the psychiatric instituitons back.

".. asylums based on the true meaning of the word: places of sancuary and safety for vulnerable people" "..Not the dismal instituitions that were shuttered in the past.."(Room for Debate). In the article, Psychiatric institutions Are a Necessity it provides sufficient information in order to bring back thses instituitons. This artcle, will make you see that the mentall ill are not crimminals or animals, but people who suffer from an illness that requiers a cure and attention. In the article, Should the U.S. Bring Back Psychiatric Asylums, as assistant professor of medical ethics,health policy , and psychiatty states " that the care should be "designed in collaboration with the patient".Thsi is said because there is many patients who require a certian type of care, not the same traumatic care from the early 1970s.(Should the U.S. Bring Back PSychiatrc Asylums ) . However, in the article "History of Psychiatric Hospitals reads that today there is a small amount of private psychiatric hospitals that deliver care and treatment "through a web of services including crisis services, short-term ..." In addition, there are "services that range from twenty-four- hour assistant living environments to clinics and clinicians ... that offer..psycho-therapeutic treatments" (History of Psychiatric Hospitals). What this means is that now in today's world, we somewhat provide treatment in clinics and hospitals, however, we need more than that for those who still need more attention then the rest. "asylums...might be still needed for the most vulnerable individuals who need supportive living environments" For

example,

works Cited
“Diseases of the Mind: Highlights of American Psychiatry through 1900 - Early Psychiatric Hospitals and Asylums.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, 18 Jan. 2017, www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/diseases/early.html.
“History of Mental Health Treatment.” Dual Diagnosis, www.dualdiagnosis.org/mental-health-and-addiction/history/.
Montagne, Renee. “Inside The Nation's Largest Mental Institution.” NPR, NPR, 13 Aug. 2008, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93581736.
Pennsylvania Hospital History: Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital - Finding Aid Arrangement, www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/collections/finding/iphgeneral.html.