Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ill
Restraint
Tranquilizing Chair
Dorothy Dix: -saw first hand how the mentally ill were treated and
dedicated her life to fight for better conditions
- traveled from state to state to campaign
- result: better, state-run hospitals built
• They are emotionally and socially ill and are sent to stay in the
mental hospitals…overcrowding is at times worse than before
• The mental hospitals are forced to resort to the old ways.. Restraints
and shock therapy are two of the first procedures to resurface.
-In order to compensate for the wave of soldiers,
asylums begin to open all over the country
Huge decline in patient care….no more individual rooms, locked and
stacked cribs
The lobotomy was first introduced in the early 1930s. Later the
trans-orbital lobotomy was used which was faster and required less
patient care but was also much more deadly
Dei nstituti onal izati on
Step in the right direction but… the act did not cover
the needs of ALL mental patients since it offered
psychotherapy to only non-chronic sufferers.
HORRIBLE conditions…
-Overcrowding
-Poor living conditions
-Poor health
Video of former Willowbrook resident
mental l y i ll
Also in 1980, the rights of the mentally ill were again brought
into focus with the passing of the Civil Rights of
Institutionalized Persons Act
Happy ending?