Essay: Insane asylums

Insane asylums are a thing of the past that are possibly trying to bring themselves to present day society. These were used to house mentally disordered individuals that were not safe enough to have in society. After recent events have arised of multiple shootings at schools, music events, etc Donald Trump believes that it would be best to start the reopening of mental institutions. Some psychiatrists are agreeing with this, though not for the same reasons. At first I will explain the need for insane asylums, the views of Trump vs psychiatrists and then my viewpoint.

 

Asylums began in the 19th century in Great Britain when families started to seek outside of themselves and their local communities for help with the mentally disordered. The complexity of special institutions that were produced to house and control the insane were very sparse until about the 18th century. When one started showing signs of going mad or becoming “insane” they when ahead and applied different techniques such as outdoor relief, financial support, the use and support of parish nurses. This was done by the parish authorities in the town, not by the family members. Although, when individual cases became too much to handle, those who have gone mad or “insane” were given out to different families that believed could fix them, and if this did not work then they were ultimately put into a private institution such as a mad house; which is what we call an insane asylum today. On the contrary, there were such cases that if the authority deemed the insane too violent or showed profound disturbing qualities, they were not sentenced to a private institution. They were then sent to a correctional facility to live out their sentence. It was not long after this that institutions began to double in size. They now included a kitchen, a parlor, bedrooms for each one of the disturbed; it seemed to resemble more of a manor than an institution for the insane. Asylums, retreats, closer to present-day yoga spas than clinics. They coincided roughly with the founding of what is now modern psychiatry (Carey, 2018). For those who were very disturbed, they were chained down and not given the ability to roam, while on the other hand all other patients were able to roam freely around the institution. This includes inside and out and the surrounding areas such as neighborhoods around the site.

Trump believes that they should bring back asylums to place those who are the main cause of all of the violence in the world. He believes that it is just as easy to place everyone in one building that causes all these shooting sprees such as Parkland, Las Vegas, Sandy Hook, Orlando Pulse, etc. and call it a day and everything would be solved. Psychiatrists on the other hand believe it should be done for an alternate reason. A majority of the individuals who do take place in these shootings are just lost causes. They are those, who are mentally ill that were overlooked by the healthcare system and were given access to guns. In more recent decades, an increasing number of people with mental disabilities landed in prison, usually for nonviolent offenses. Today there are at least 100,000 inmates with psychosis, far more if those with severe mood problems and drug problems are included, experts estimate (Carey, 2018). There is no where to place those who are mentally disturbed. They are ending up in prison with those who have committed crimes rather than in an institute where they can receive counseling and guidance. The cost of care is one of the main conflicts of interests on this topic. This nation has provided such little budget to the health care systems, this places mental health at the bottom of the pyramid for the health care budget. It is cheaper to throw them in a jail than to house them for the appropriate amount of days in an institution to help better them. According to Daniella Trammel who is a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health states that a normal stay for a patient should be around 28 days, the average for more of the severe cases rounds about to 85 days. Institutions that have a lot of money put into them are those institutions who are given the ability to abuse their power. For example, the Worcester institution cost approximately $150,000 or more annually to house one single resident. Compare this to about $30,000 a year in a community care facility which includes housing.

Psychological disorders are simply not self diagnosed or do not take a day or two to diagnose. So society has appropriate and consistent diagnosis of psychological disorders, mental health professionals such as psychiatrists usually reference the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). They find what emotions, actions, or feelings one has been feeling. They then narrow it down as if these feelings are abnormal, or normal, fit into the stereotype and building blocks of a disorder and continue on diagnosing from there. Those who are institutionalized can be for many disorders; these go from anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and personality disorders. I believe that asylums should become a thing of the present as they would help with society as a whole. With the recent events of shootings, if those who are mentally ill were diagnosed and helped sooner, these could have never happened. Though on the other hand, I do agree with the psychiatric point of view that it is just humanely correct to provide these resources to those who really do need it. Stop funding the things that do not matter and make a difference in the world and begin funding those who could make millions of differences. No one seemed to care enough a generation ago, when so many become homeless,” Dr. E. Fuller Torrey who is founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center added. “Now that they’re going to prison, well, these are horrendous tragedies, and if there were beds available, you wonder how many of these tragedies could be avoided.” Society will begin to care too late, if we begin to make a change now than it will stop future dilemmas. This starts and begins with the push and determination of the people of the nation against those who are in power.