The Pros And Cons Of Mental Hospitals

There has been much debate in recent decade’s whether if mental hospitals should de instutionlize their clients or not. This happens to be a personal issue for me and I have some sort of background on this. My mother and father both worked at an institution run by the state for individuals with disabilities. I have grown up around a topic that most parents avoid telling their children due to a stigma being associated with it. In our textbook we learned that around the 1960’s many intuitions were being broken up and a more community approach was being adopted. This was signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. This approach was implemented because of the predicted success of new anti-psychotic medications. This coupled with the often mistreatment of clients made for the push away from large intuitions (Trattner 1999). While this did benefit some individuals it did not for a majority of people. Many mentally ill individuals were left homeless after hospitals deinstitutionalized, making up one-third of the homeless population (D.E. Torrey). According to one study many people who are severely mentally ill are now treated during their incarceration in a correctional facility (D.E. Torrey). This is one trend

My cousin who my parents raised due to him being abandoned by his parents had several forms of mental illness. My parents choose not to instuionalize him when he was younger because he was high functioning and flourshied with outpatient care. When I was about seven years old this all changed. He hurt me because he did not understand the repercussions of his actions. My parents decided then that he needed more help than what we could give him. So they put him into several programs which were state runned. My mother and father to this day feel guilty that not more could have been done for him. My mother feels as if she decided to forsake one of her kids for the safety of the