Week1 PBSfilm Essay

Bachrach, the author of dozens of articles on mental health, reports on the development deinstitutionalization in “Deinstitutionalisation: promises, problems and prospects” (1995). Bachrach argues that deinstitutionalization is not a perfect solution to the problem of the treatment of PMI and supports her argument with discussions about both the drawbacks and “positive legacy” of deinstitutionalization. She explains that deinstitutionalization has three parts: the release of patients into the community, the diversion of possible new patients and the development of newer community programs; Bachrach logically explains that the last process is “particularly important” because it impacts the entirety of the patients new independent life in the community. Multiple sources remarked that the third step of deinstitutionalization had not been properly handled (SOURCES?), one author going so far as to call the last step, and deinstitutionalization as a whole, an “abject failure” (Kara, 2014). While the author supports this claim with the consequences that things such as the lack of community resources has had on the population of PMI, she does not concede any of the positive outcomes of deinstitutionalization making her argument somewhat one sided. The article explains that while institutions began closing, “hundreds of vulnerable people were displaced” to communities that were not properly equipped to support them. An article from the Canadian Mental Health Association website by Diana Ballon supports this claim with a more concrete figure stating that since 1950s and 60s and the beginnings of deinstitutionalization there has been “the closure of almost 80 percent of beds in psychiatric hospitals” (n.d.). This increase of PMI living in communities with a lack of proper housing lead to a disproportionally large number of PMI being homeless or living in poverty which “greatly increase[s] the odds of PMI

This was the first effective antipsychotic medication. Most of those who were deinstitutionalized were severely mentally ill. Between 50 and 60 percent of them were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Another 10 to 15 percent were diagnosed with manic-depressive illness and severe depression and an additional 10 to 15 percent were diagnosed with organic brain diseases, such as epilepsy, strokes, and Alzheimer's disease. Deinstitutionalization further worsened the situation because, once the public psychiatric beds had been closed, they were not available for people who later became mentally ill. This situation continues up to the present. As a result, approximately 2.2 million severely mentally ill people do not receive any psychiatric treatment. Patients were kicked out with no choice. Many untreated mentally ill patients were incarcerated instead of being placed in asylums. The goal of deinstitutionalizing was that these patients should be treated in the least restrictive settings. But the settings ended up being on the streets or behind

The realization that people did better when they were in their own environment, as opposed to a mental institution was a major turning point in the treatment of the mentally ill. This was the time of deinstitutionalization, realizing that individuals would thrive outside of the institution. An article in the Washington Post gives the shocking statistics "The number of Americans with intellectual disabilities who live in large state institutions declined by 85 percent between 1965 and 2009"(Pollack). By putting mentally ill individuals back into a more normal environment their cognitive abilities were improved as well as their treatment. They were treated as real individuals not as just another patient. Outpatient treatment centers became the main provider of services for the mentally ill. While deinstitutionalization is a good thing, it can also have some negative pitfalls. A large

Since the deinstitutionalization flushed patients out of hospitals, they began to close down, forcing the patients to stay within the criminal justice system. This problem has just persisted, and in present day, it still exists (Treatment Advocacy Center and National Sheriffs’ Association 9-13).

Reid (2008) notes that the mentally challenged present a serious challenge to our prison systems. He reports that over 50 percent of all inmates have mental health problems, with a high percentage of both jail and prison inmates meeting the criteria for psychotic disorders. Society does not know how to

What is deinstitutionalization? Deinstitutionalization is the practice of substituting long-stay psychiatric hospitals with less isolated community mental health treatment for individuals diagnosed with a mental disorder or developmental disability. (Merriam-Webster) ? ?

The article that I chose for my review is Does Deinstitutionalization Increase Suicide? written by Jangho Yoon and Tim A. Bruckner. The reason I chose this article is because I am very interested in mental health and treatment of mental illness. The article focuses on public psychiatric hospitals deinstitutionalizing mental health patients into the community for public mental health care. A reason for deinstitutionalizing patients can be because of the amount of money that the facility could lose. In my opinion, mental health facilities prefer to admit patients with insurance or who are private pay compared to the uninsured or those with low economic status because of the chances of losing the money for services provided. Those who are deinstitutionalized from a mental health facility find themselves going to public community mental health facilities. Although public facilities have resources to help patients, there are some diagnosis that these facilities are unable to treat, in this case the patient needs to be in a more advanced institutional facility. Another thing that the article talks about is the relationship between deinstitutionalization and the rate of suicide.

Based on the article America’s largest mental hospital is a jail, written by Matt Ford. Deinstitutionalization is a national shift in mental-health treatment from state hospitals to community based facilities. From the early part of the 19th century people with mental health illness were treated in asylums (Turner page 1). For most people, isn’t an institution a better fit than the community? The open society foundations mentioned that everyone, even those people with multiple and profound disabilities can live in the community with the right support. With that said, the upside of deinstitutionalization is that people with mental illness are allowed to be treated in a comfortable environment rather than an institution with hundreds of other

Currently, a large percentage of those that are incarcerated suffer from some sort of mental illness. These inmates often fall through the cracks of preexisting mental health systems. According to a guide released by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (1993):

This article talks about how mental illness isn’t directly related to criminal activity or violence as much as one might think. But, the writer does looks at trying to understand people with mental illnesses and criminal activity and violence can be related because to understand that then the policies can be changed to be more affective for the institutions and the individuals with the mental ill. New policies aren’t the only thing that has to change for people with mental illnesses in prisons and jails because that has a limited reach. There are 5 aspects that can make mentally ill prisoners better: increase and improve

The study of mental illness has a long and rich history within medical sociology and health studies, dating back to at least the 1930s (Cook, et. al, 1995, p. 95). Many of the theoretical and methodological contributions of early medical studies were developed in research that was focused on the personal experiences of individuals with psychiatric disorders, along with the social conditions to which they were subject to (Cook, et. al, 1995, p. 95). For most of this century, the treatment of those suffering with mental illness has been centred around the institutionalization of the mentally ill within asylums, and hospitals (Cook, et. al, 1995, p. 95). In saying that however, over the last few decades, the mental care services have experienced a momentous shift, that has dramatically altered the lives of those with serious mental illnesses (Cook, et. al, 1995, p. 95). By the mid 1970s, state and federal efforts regarding the deinstitutionalization of inpatients was well underway, having begun in the 1950s and peaking in the 1980s (Mowbray, &Holter, 2002, p. 136).

The topic that I chose that was the most related to my major and area of interest was an article on insane asylums. From the Psychiatry aspect, some of the things that psychiatrist tend to are patients with mental disorders and patients that live within mental institution. Due to my intended field and area of interest, I plan on going into the psychiatric aspect of psychology. In the article, “Deinstitutionalization: A Psychiatric: “Titanic” that author is able to give off good definitions and statistics on the information first hand. On the other hand in the article, it discusses the true meaning of deinstitutionalization. Basically Deinstitutionalization is taking severely mentally ill patients out of regular state institutions. Most patients are admitted to public psychiatric hospitals have to be really mentally ill. Most public psychiatric hospitals discharge there patients without even ensuring that they have the proper medication and recovery services they need before being let back into the community. However, with deinstitutionalization furthers the process and actually analyses the entire situation. The main focus of deinstitutionalization is having a more opening setting for patients. The author states, “The "least restrictive setting" frequently turns out to be a cardboard box, a jail cell, or a terror-filled existence plagued by both real and imaginary enemies”. With these type of insinuations it causes a variety of construed thoughts. Most people confide in

In the late 1930’s there were many Mental Health Institutions which were dedicated to actually take care of people and provide them with their own rooms and be well fed. “Eventually over population occurred when “homeless people, tramps, and hobos,”(Leupo, 2001), became patients along side the mentally ill. “Families would often submit their elderly relatives into the asylums because they lacked the resources or or time to deal with them appropriately”(Leupo, 2001). Over crowding occurred when the asylums and institutions did not have a “established criteria for accepting or rejecting people who came into care” (Leupo, 2001). Due to the rapid growth of patients the actual care to each patient suffered. Staff was also short and they could help all of the patients and dedicate them much time. “There was no effort to provide any other programs or support because the state funded the institutions” (Leupo, 2001).

confusion in all portions of a person's life. Psychosis is seen in a wide range

treatment for the mentally disabled, influenced by the increasing awareness of psychiatrists of the harmful effects of long-term institutional care for some people, and by the costs of institutions. In 1953 half of