How Did Dorothea Dix Treat The Mentally Ill In The 1800s

She realized that she needed to challenge the idea that people with mental disturbances could be cured or helped. Dix soon began to investigate the treatment of the mentally ill in Massachusetts, and in 1843 submitted her first “memorial” to the state legislature. The memorial shows how Dix worked within the conventions of herself in public life and draws attention to the horrendous treatment of the mentally ill in prisons, almshouses for the poor, and asylums. Dix’s efforts to help the mentally ill led to building of about 32 institutions in the United

Institutionalization in the 1800’s was Dorothea Dix was a mover and shaker, who together with a few others in her era was responsible for alleviating the plight of the mentally ill. In the 1800's she found them in jails, almshouses and underneath bridges. She then began her major lobby with legislators and authority figures across the land, to get hospitals built in what was then known as the "Moral Treatment Era. " Things did get better, with ups and downs, of course. She visited widely, in the Midwest state hospitals in Independence and Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and Winnebago in Wisconsin ca.

This is when she wrote most of her books, staying up late to do so. Dix started the Asylum Movement, a reformation that led to the mentally ill and prisoners being given humane conditions to live in. She was physically ill most of her life, and it is suspected she suffered from depression and occasionally mental breakdowns, which may have encouraged her quest for reformation even more. Dorothea Dix represents conflict because she wrote books for the “Asylum Movement,” taught the mentally ill and prisoners, and caused the reformation of hundreds of hospitals. Dix was the eldest child and only daughter of Joseph Dix and Mary Bigelow.

Dorothea Dix was an American activist who created the first generation of American asylums. Dorothea Dix was also the superintendent of Army nurses during the Civil War. Dix was born in Hampden, Maine. She grew up in Worcester Massachusetts and was the oldest of three. Her parents Joseph Dix and Mary Bigelow had deep ancestral roots in Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Dix was also active at the federal level as well, pitching ideas to Congress, only to come one person shy of creating twelve million acres of land meant solely for the mentally challenged, blind, and deaf. Of course, this was discouraging, but it didn’t stop Dix from making a change and helping those in need. She traveled to Europe and was able to establish a new hospital with the help of Pope Pius IX, only to come back to America and lend a hand in the Civil War as “Superintendent of Nurses.” The fight for the mentally impaired did not stop though, as she continued to

The conviction is continually deepened that hospitals are the only places where insane persons can be at once humanely and properly controlled (Dix 1843).” Values of doing right and advancing their country toward more humane ideals helped contribute to nationalism. Additionally, since women could finally be serious reformers, women all over the country felt more included, promoting pride in America as well as

False Imprisonment of Sane One big flaw in the system for the insertions was determining if a person was really insane or not. They did not have the technology and the knowledge to really figure that out yet. Due to this many people that were completely sane were sentenced to these institutions. One huge example of this inability to sort sane from insane was Nellie Bly. Nellie Bly was a reporter at the time that snuck into an asylum in order to uncover the truths.

Shocked to see prisoners devoid of medical and moral treatment in damp, cold quarters, Dix vowed to end the barbaric and revolting degradation. Very little of the population knew or cared about the mentally ill’s peril, and Dix’s crusade changed the way the mentally ill were received. Dix not only shed light on the nation’s most perplexing problem, she fearlessly shoved the issue squarely into the center of public policy, broadcasting the issue through her written account On Behalf of the Insane and Poor. Dix constructed 32 hospitals and 13 asylums throughout America and Europe (Reddi, 2005, para. 6). Most of these symbols of hope and progress are still standing today.

Their are around 500,000 mentally ill people that are put away in prisons and jails. In the documentary “The New Asylums”,Ohio's state prison system reveals the issues that are ongoing with mentally ill inmates. The major problem we have today is that no one is taking care of the people of these people. Most mentally ill people live by themselves with no family or friends to take care of them and they are off their medications. The mentally ill come in to prison on non violent offenses such as disturbing the peace, trespassing, etc. After leaving mental hospitals they usually end up on the streets and become homeless.

She investigated every mentally ill facility in Massachusetts and documented the conditions and treatments. This document was submitted to the state legislature in 1843 and passed quickly to get better conditions and a larger asylum for the mentally ill. The next two years Dix traveled to New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, and Maryland and did the same exact thing she did in Massachusetts to improve the

One woman is described as, “clinging to or beating upon the bars of her caged apartment... unwashed [body] invested with fragments of unclean garments... irritation of body produced by utter filth an exposure incited her to t he horrid process of tearing off her skin by inches,”(Dix 5). Dix also describes how cages were a commonplace within almshouses by stating, “Hardly a town but can refer to some not distant period of using [cages],”(Dix 4). In this manner, Dix is imploring the Massachusetts Legislature to take immediate action. By describing these wretched conditions, Dix gives evidence and reason for reformation. The indecent livelihood of the mentally ill brought to the surface by Dix brings to question the effectiveness of the current prison system in Massachusetts.

“...Insane persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience.” These words were spoken in front of the General Court of Massachusetts by Joseph S. Dodd in January of 1843. Dodd spoke for Dorothea Dix, since women were not allowed to present cases to the Court. Dorothea Dix was a reformer in the 19th century, and went to extreme measures to take a stand for the mentally ill.

Introduction Prior to the mid-1960 virtually all mental health treatment was provided on an inpatient basis in hospitals and institutions. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was established with its primary focus on deinstitutionalizing mentally ill patients, and shutting down asylums in favor of community mental health centers. It was a major policy shift in mental health treatment that allowed patients to go home and live independently while receiving treatment, (Pollack & Feldman, 2003). As a result of the Act, there was a shift of mentally ill persons in custodial care in state institutions to an increase of the mentally ill receiving prosecutions in criminal courts.

Mental Illness in the 1800's: something needed to be done If you had a mental illness in the 1800's you'd be put into an asylum which usually had horrible conditions. Thanks to Dorothea Dix that is not how we treat mentally ill people today. Dorothea Dix reformed society by showing the gov. how people were treated in these asylums and wanted to make the conditions better by, for example putting in libraries.

This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. In reality, these reform movements are idiotically placing a bandaid over the tremendous issue that the prison system is. An imbalance of reforms between women and men, unrestrained sexual abuse in women’s prisons, and tyrannical gender roles are just three of countless examples of how prison reform movements only create more misfortune and fail to provide any real solution to worsening prison conditions. Perhaps instead of conjuring up additional ideas on how to reform prisons, America’s so-called democratic society should agree upon abolishing prisons as a whole. This being said, it is crucial to identify ongoing issues in today’s society, understand how they contribute to unlawful behavior, and seek a solution.