Preview

Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
593 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill
Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill Deinstitutionalization refers to releasing a mentally or physically handicapped person from an institution whose main purpose was to provide treatment into a community with the intent of providing services through the community under the supervision of health-care professionals. There have been many positive outcomes from deinstitutionalization for both the patients and society but there have also been many drawbacks of deinstitutionalization. Deinstitutionalization is a process which affects the community as a whole and there are many procedures that must be followed in order to see this process follow through successfully (Watnik, 2001).

The deinstitutionalization process began in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s. Facilities were financially liable for patients while they were committed, but were able to modify the burden to the federal government by discharging them. A lot of our society believes that the deinstitutionalization process was simply created because of the facilities’ inadequacy of treatment to their patients. Motivated by a concern for the civil rights of patients, deinstitutionalization focused on more rigorous standards for civil commitment and created practical safeguard processes, such as the right to treatment in the least preventive atmosphere (Watnik, 2001).

New York dealt with deinstitutionalization in the wrong ways from the beginning. For instance, New York was the only state prior to 1994 that had limitations specifically prohibiting outpatient commitment. In 1994, the legislation passed the Bellevue Pilot Program which was established to helping the deinstitutionalization process. In 1999, New York Governor George Pataki, created Kendra’s Law which was a law that was influenced by the increase rise of mentally unstable individuals hurting and killing other people randomly. Kendra’s Law allows particular individuals (such as family members) to petition the court to obtain an

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The article I chose to read on the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill was entitled: “Victimization of the Mentally Ill: An Unintended Consequence of Deinstitutionalization”. According to this article, one issue the deinstitutionalization brought about that affected communities was the increased number of displaced, homeless, mentally ill patients. Because so many of these patients are left untreated, they are unable to cope in a normal society, often causing these deinstitutionalized patients to become part of the legal system. These misunderstood individuals often end up in the prison system, not receiving the assistance they require and eating up state funding.…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in the 1960s. Your text examines some positive and negative…

    • 2482 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The elimination of state mental hospitals was not based on human need, but rather a political policy decision. The shortage of mental institutions creates a shift in the role of prison systems and presents several different issues for mentally ill inmates. The inmates are not medically treated in…

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil commitment can be accomplished in a less restrictive alternative, outpatient civil commitment. The courts are empowered to order “ outpatient treatment orders’ or “ orders of nonhospitalization” (Barton, 2011). Typically, the individual lives at home or foster home and comply with the prescribed drugs. Not too long ago, most states required proof that the individual was mentally ill and dangerous to self and others. However, that has changed and now it is only required to proof only mentally illness. The new criteria is a method of prevention, treating the individual before he or she can potentially become dangerous to self and others.…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Eth125 R7 Appendix I

    • 1718 Words
    • 7 Pages

    |Deinstitutionalization |To release (a mentally or physically handicapped person) from a hospital, asylum, home, or|…

    • 1718 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Awakenings Project

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. The abuses at Bainbridge Hospital reflected a broken system at that time. Any person who was deemed untreatable was put into a “garden”- where people were treated like flowers that were simply “watered” and “fed” every day. The attitude of the people who worked at the institution was of people who had accepted the system’s failures as a way of life; they did not strive for change, they simply “went with the flow.” Dr. Sayer introduces a number of attitudes that can be seen in modern care facilities. For example, his unfailing persistence in not giving up on patients who he believed had a chance at life. These patients had been immobile for decades, with countless people telling him that they would never get better. By believing in their cognizance and their persistent awareness of their surroundings, Dr. Sayer creates the hospital environment of today, punctuated with the idea that all patients should have the chance to have the best chance in life. He never gave up hope. However, Dr. Sayer also faced many different obstacles in attempting to treat his patients. For example, he needed to first overcome the mockery of his fellow coworkers. The doctors and nurses who worked with him did not understand his desires to pursue what seemed like a meaningless waste of time. However, in doing so, he gave life back to people who would have otherwise been trapped forever, in a state of permanent limbo. Later, he also faced the crisis of dosage with his “patient zero”, Leonard. Would he cross the line and illegally dose Leonard without the consent of the pharmacist? In doing so, he achieved success. However, he had to do so by compromising the laws set by society. Moreover, he had to muster funding for the drug for all the patients that had been affected at the institution. He could have given up after the head of the hospital told him that it was simply too much money, but he persisted in his efforts and was rewarded with enough funding for…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hsm 240 Week 9 Final Project

    • 2755 Words
    • 12 Pages

    On June 22, 1999, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the Olmsted decision and affirmed the right of individuals with disabilities to live in their community. Under Title II of the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act, “states are required to place persons with mental disabilities in community settings rather than in institutions when the states treatment professionals have determined that community placement is appropriate, the transfer from institutional care to a less restrictive setting is not opposed by the affected individual, and the placement can be reasonably accommodated, taking into account the resources available to the state and the needs of others with mental disabilities”(Justice R. Ginsburg, Olmstead decision). Under this act, institutionalized individuals now have the choice on whether to stay in their current facility or to move out into the community. After the Olmstead decision, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended that each state develop its own “Olmstead Plan” to ensure compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision. This decision has challenged Federal, State, and local governments to find more opportunities for individuals with disabilities through additional accessible and cost-effective community-based housing.…

    • 2755 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Deinstitutionalization has started to become a very big dilemma in our society today. Because of high recidivism and quality of care in institutions, they have started to become an unnecessary part of our mental health services. This lack of productivity in mental institutions and our recent deinstitutionalization laws has caused a lot of mental health patients to be put back out on the streets when they should be receiving treatment. These are people that can barely take care of themselves, wear torn or inappropriate clothing, talk to themselves, shout at others, and generally act in bizarre ways. Though none of this directly affects anyone personally,…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    From viewing the American Psychiatric Nurse Association (APNA), this paper presents divergent views on the topics of seclusion and restraints in which I am seeking to prove that ethical principles do not morally uphold psychiatric patient’s rights constitutionally as well as the engagement of unjust practices seen in improving patient outcomes.…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Overcrowding In The 1800s

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the Nixon administration, funding was impounded and during Reagan’s administration, mental health funding was collapsed funding in order to block grants. During the period 1970-73 14 state hospitals were closed. Programs that supported deinstintuliation were the start of Community Mental Health Centers passed on a bill by the U.S Congress hoping that it would be able to be a resource regardless of one's ability to pay(The History Of Issues,132-140). The 1900s was a time of great progress in mental health reform but as the 2000s approached some of the biggest changes occurred on the basis of treatment as the idea of mental illness slowly became a less taboo subject among the population(The History Of…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the mid-1900s, the discovery of psychological and drug methods had a rapid succession as a form of treatment and created a decline of patients in asylums. Psychiatrists of this era worked in the asylums practicing “moral treatment” or “moral management”, a humane approach at quieting mental turmoil, this then replaced the often-cruel treatment that then prevailed. This treatment was also based on the belief that the environment was a vital role. Replacing shackles, chains and cement…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dr. Self-Annihilation

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Physician self-annihilation ought to be an legal choice for terminally unwell patients within the U.S. This can be some way for the terminally sick folks to end their lives with dignity and while not the shame and suffering. 3 states have led the suggests that and have allowed Dr. self-annihilation and that I believe that the state ought to follow in their footsteps.…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    As we are one month into the year 2016 it would be assumed that society has conveyed itself from the removal of a persons right to form decisions. The book Tranquil Prisons presents a thought provoking case study that perfect depicts the stripping of a persons right to choose. In the Mullins case, the individual involved was experiencing some challenges in their life, which induced symptoms of anxiety that brought him to voluntarily seek help. In short, the medical team wrongfully treated the patient with medication putting him in a state where he could not make the proper decisions. This is a perfect example of coercion through the hand of…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever been dealt a dilemma were you knew that someone needed your help but you were also aware that you where not the individual with the capability of helping. This was the situation with my friend Dan; he and I went to high school together and were good friends. After graduation Dan went on to obtain a dual degree in mathematics and physics from Cal Berkeley, and was on the first U.S. table tennis team to go to china in the early 1970's. I remember being so proud of him, and knew without any doubt that he would live a very successful life. However Dan began to hear voices, gradually deteriorated, and ended up living in his parent's garage. Here are two people in their 80's trying to live a life that always included the uncertainty of not knowing if their son was going to burn down their house. He terrorized them, he terrorized the people of his neighborhood, and he scared the heck out of the cops, including myself, who responded to the one, two, three calls a month that came from Dan's house. Sometimes he had a gun; sometimes he had gasoline and road flares. Always he was irrational. In the beginning, he would recognize me and I could talk him out of whatever he was set on doing. In the end I was just another blue uniform. Often Dan didn't meet the criteria for a 72-hour hold for evaluation. There were often no options other than arrest and jail, which is where Dan stayed until he calmed down and could be released to his parents. Tragically Dan died alone from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and no one, certainly not me and certainty not the system, had adequate resources to help him.…

    • 1319 Words
    • 38 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Every time the state has to correct their budget for the state they look at what they can cut, and usually the mental health service will be one to get cut. So, states have tried to do deinstitutionalization is where it focuses on reducing the amount of patients in hospitals, by releasing them early, to help reduce the need to stay in the hospital so as to reduce dependency. A private hospital will have ways of getting people to donate, not only money but equipment and other services by volunteering.…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays