Psychiatric hospitals are facilities for people who have severe mental illness problems. One of the earliest insane asylums was Bethlem, London, which was made in 1247. people with mental illness were placed in places called asylums which were very crowded institutions that were underfunded. Once a patient was placed in an asylum it was very hard for them to get out. In the 1700s there were a few private asylums where the rich could send their relatives. The poor were out of luck around this time, they would rely on a parish to fund the patient or they could be sent to a workhouse or a prison. During these times, The Bath of Surprise method was used, this was a form of “treatment” where they would take a patient and surprisingly dunk them in an ice cold bath. They would strap them down from hours to even days.
In the early 1800s, mental illness was treated by isolation. They believed that people with mental illness were dangerous and shouldn’t be kept in public. Around this time the caretakers at these asylums would put the patient in a small cage with chains for hours to days or until the patient was calm.
During the early 1900s.These patients also had “treatments” which were usually not effective and would not be done to people today. During these times the patients were usually not put in by themself, instead, their families would send them to the institutions without their consent. Lobotomy was a very common form of treatment. A lobotomy was a traumatic brain surgery where they insert a tool into the brain. Many claimed that this would cure depression, schizophrenia, and personality disorders. Although it was believed that it could work and cure some, it was usually ineffective and inhumane. This treatment caused patients to end up with irreversible brain damage.
Currently, insane asylums isn't the term that is used as often. Mental hospitals formed around 1960 when John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Centers Act. This act stated that states can fund and support the building of mental health hospitals. It created community based care instead of institutional based care. Today many things have changed in these asylums. First of all, patients are now being treated with proper medications and therapy. Today, the caretakers understand how to help and treat mental illness. In mental hospitals they focus more on stabilization. When the patient is stable enough to go into the community they will be discharged. The average stay for mental hospitals today is around 10 days, which is significantly less than in the 1900s where they could be there from months to years, or even their whole lives.
How would you feel if your family sent you to a mental hospital without you knowing?
Do you think the treatments they used actually worked?
How do you think society treats or should treat people in mental hospitals?
https://psychcentral.com/blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-mental-hospital-patient#changes-over-time
https://fherehab.com/learning/treat-mental-health-centuries
https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/victorian-mental-asylum
Replies
If my family sent me to an asylum i would be mad and i wish they would have talk to me first. I think that the treatments that they give you can only help so much, the person also needs to be able to change. I think that people need to be nicer to people in hospital because that could be you.
I agree. I think that the family should talk to the person before just sending them to a mental hospital.
I would probably do anything in my favor to not go and more then likely be very mad at them for doing that. The treatments more then likely worked with a hanful of people but for some they probably did not work because they are to far gone.
I think that most of these treatments that they used didn't actually work but just mostly made it worse.
I would feel awful if my family sent me to a mental hospital without me knowing. They would lose all my trust for the rest of our lives. I don't think the treatments they used actually works, they seem inaffective. Society treats people in mental hospitals in a terrible way.
I agree. Most of these treatments just don't sound like they would work and sound too harsh to work.
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