You know, the sad thing is that that asylum may very well still have been functioning, except for two things happening in the 1960s: 1) Mental hospitals got a bad rap due to public exposure of the abuses and the shitty attempts at treatment (most infamously lobotomies and ECT), 2) the rise of psychopharmacology led to massive deinstitutionalization.

The plan was to close facilities such as Willowbrook in NY and place the residents in group homes. 

As usual, money and politics got in the way.

Hence, we lock them up or leave them on the streets and make no pretense of treating them.

But hey, at least the government saves money.

I was under the impression that mental asylums were worse than going to jail.

(May 8, 2017 at 1:09 am)Little lunch Wrote: I was under the impression that mental asylums were worse than going to jail.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by the term 'mental asylum'. I spent several weeks in a psych ward and several months in a prison. Prison was worse.

Boru

(May 8, 2017 at 1:09 am)Little lunch Wrote: I was under the impression that mental asylums were worse than going to jail.

You have movies to thank for that.

They paint an unrealistic image of what a mental hospital is like. I don't think I've seen any movie that displays it accurately.

There are still Psychiatric hospitals. It is the long term institutionalization of patients that is shunned. ECT is still performed and is considered an effective treatment for depression that does not respond to medication.

(May 8, 2017 at 12:28 am)Rev. Rye Wrote: You know, the sad thing is that that asylum may very well still have been functioning, except for two things happening in the 1960s: 1) Mental hospitals got a bad rap due to public exposure of the abuses and the shitty attempts at treatment (most infamously lobotomies and ECT), 2) the rise of psychopharmacology led to massive deinstitutionalization.

We still use ECT, it's just not talked about that much and is with patient consent.

Edit: Oops, chimp beat me to it.

(May 8, 2017 at 5:50 am)chimp3 Wrote: There are still Psychiatric hospitals. It is the long term institutionalization of patients that is shunned. ECT is still performed and is considered an effective treatment for depression that does not respond to medication.

That part, I admit I'm aware of. The point is, several factors converged to ensure we don't have as many long term facilities to take care of the more extreme cases of mental illness. And while we technically know better, society's response to mental illness hasn't really changed that much.