For too many years, society ignored state psychiatric hospitals and their patients. Often tucked away in rural areas, the hospitals were easy to avoid, and many patients were locked up and forgotten.
State mental hospitals have long been criticized as second-or third-rate institutions where the poor and those made poor by lingering psychiatric illness resort for care. In many areas of the country, experienced mental health professionals are urging the states to get out of the business of providing care-to junk the old buildings if necessary, retrain the staff, relocate the patients-and use the available money to contract for better care in the private sector. So you’d think, in the intervening 30+ years of change from the 1970s and public psychiatric hospitals, we’ve learned a thing or two about people, their emotional needs, and treating them like, well, you know, human beings. Many patients in private psychiatric hospitals are denied simple comforts such as fresh air, unless — ironically enough — they have to smoke. The people in charge claim this is for the patients’ own protection, since many are there for self-harm or suicidal behaviors or thoughts. By DAVA SOBEL. ERODED from without by changing philosophies of psychiatric care and dwindling financial support, and crippled from within by demoralization of staff and patients alike, many state mental hospitals around the country are being forced either to close their doors or change the way they operate. In many areas of the country, experienced mental health professionals are urging the states to get out of the business of providing care-to junk the old buildings if necessary, retrain the staff, relocate the patients-and use the available money to contract for better care in the private sector. His goal was to reduce by 50 percent the number of patients in state mental hospitals in 10 to 20 years, according to Rochefort. As a result of Kennedy's legislation, the number of patients in state mental hospitals declined by 62 percent by 1975. What they will do with the pantents remains to be seen. I think they will transfer them to other facilities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Di... The WHY is money money money money money. It cost big money to have mental health hospitals (resorts & hotels). For too many years, society ignored state psychiatric hospitals and their patients. Often tucked away in rural areas, the hospitals were easy to avoid, and many patients were locked up and forgotten. As a result, the public paid little, if any, attention to state mental health programs or institutions. People no longer seem so bent on keeping these mental hospitals out of sight and out of mind Yes many of them released do end up homeless or in jail. Jail is bad but they do get some help, meds and isolated so they can't hurt themself or others. I don't think the street or jail is the place for the mental ill, but it has always been a problem with society as what to do. What they will do with the pantents remains to be seen. I think they will transfer them to other facilities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Di... The WHY is money money money money money. It cost big money to have mental health hospitals (resorts & hotels). His goal was to reduce by 50 percent the number of patients in state mental hospitals in 10 to 20 years, according to Rochefort. As a result of Kennedy's legislation, the number of patients in state mental hospitals declined by 62 percent by 1975. --Compiled by Kaitlin Bulavinetz; photo courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. These treatments often left patients severely damaged, so when new psychiatric drugs were developed in the 1950s, there was a new-found belief that people in mental institutions could be rehabilitated, according to Bernard Harcourt's research for the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. Best Answer: The biggest reason for the closings was the cutback in medicaid funds by the Federal Government, thanks to the policies of Reagan. The states received matching funds for the hospitalization of people with mental illnesses. The feds cut back and the states couldn't afford to keep the hospitals running. What they will do with the pantents remains to be seen. I think they will transfer them to other facilities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Di... The WHY is money money money money money. It cost big money to have mental health hospitals (resorts & hotels). Two stories in today’s Boston Globe caught my eye. The first is a look at the reuse of old, closed public psychiatric hospitals throughout the state, mostly being turned into some type of housing. Many patients in private psychiatric hospitals are denied simple comforts such as fresh air, unless — ironically enough — they have to smoke. The people in charge claim this is for the patients’ own protection, since many are there for self-harm or suicidal behaviors or thoughts.
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/10/science/state-psychiatric-hospitals-forced-to-change-or-close.html http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/07/08/closed-psychiatric-hospitals-reused-but-current-patients-rights-restricted/ http://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/10/science/state-psychiatric-hospitals-forced-to-change-or-close.html https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080929061943AAdXzT9 http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1994-04-14/news/1994104029_1_state-hospitals-mentally-ill-mental-hospitals https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080929061943AAdXzT9 http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/37146/A-History-of-Mental-Institutions-in-the-United-States/ https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080929061943AAdXzT9 http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/07/08/closed-psychiatric-hospitals-reused-but-current-patients-rights-restricted/
why did so many psychiatric hospitals close