Chapter 16
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA), in 2017, 14.8% of adults received treatment for a mental health issue
Children and adolescents also receive mental health services. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
found that approximately half (50.6%) of children with mental disorders had received
treatment for their disorder within the past year
,Treatment in the Past
● For much of history, people with mental illness have been treated very poorly. It
was believed that mental illness was caused by demonic possession, witchcraft,
or an angry god (Szasz, 1960). For example, in medieval times, abnormal
behaviors were viewed as a sign that a person was possessed by demons.
-If someone was considered to be possessed, there were several forms of treatment to
release spirits from the individual. The most common treatment was exorcism, often
conducted by priests or other religious figures: Incantations and prayers were said over
the person’s body, and they may have been given some medicinal drinks
● Another form of treatment for extreme cases of mental illness was trephining: A
small hole was made in the afflicted individual’s skull to release spirits from the
body.
● Generally speaking, most people who exhibited strange behaviors were greatly
misunderstood and treated cruelly. The prevailing theory of psychopathology in
earlier history was the idea that mental illness was the result of demonic
, possession by either an evil spirit or an evil god because early beliefs incorrectly
attributed all unexplainable phenomena to deities deemed either good or evil
● From the late 1400s to the late 1600s, a common belief perpetuated by some
religious organizations was that some people made pacts with the devil and
committed horrible acts, such as eating babies
● Asylums were the first institutions created for the specific purpose of housing
people with psychological disorders, but the focus was ostracizing them from
society rather than treating their disorders.
● In the late 1700s, a French physician, Philippe Pinel, argued for more humane
treatment of people with mental illness. He suggested that they be unchained
and talked to, and that’s just what he did for patients at La Salpêtrière in Paris in
1795
● the 19th century, Dorothea Dix led reform efforts for mental health care in the
United States. She investigated how those who are mentally ill and poor were
cared for, and she discovered an underfunded and unregulated system that
perpetuated abuse of this population. Horrified by her findings, Dix began
lobbying various state legislatures and the U.S. Congress for change. Her efforts
led to the creation of the first mental asylums in the United States.
● At Willard Psychiatric Center in upstate New York, for example, one treatment
was to submerge patients in cold baths for long periods of time. Electroshock
treatment was also used, and the way the treatment was administered often
broke patients’ backs; in 1943, doctors at Willard administered 1,443 shock
treatments
-Electroshock is now called electroconvulsive treatment, and the therapy is still used,
but with safeguards and under anesthesia.
Congress passed and John F. Kennedy signed the Mental Retardation Facilities and
Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act, which provided federal support
and funding for community mental health centers
This legislation changed how mental health services were delivered in the United
States. It started the process of deinstitutionalization, the closing of large asylums, by
providing for people to stay in their communities and be treated locally. In 1955, there
were 558,239 severely mentally ill patients institutionalized at public hospitals
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA), in 2017, 14.8% of adults received treatment for a mental health issue
Children and adolescents also receive mental health services. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
found that approximately half (50.6%) of children with mental disorders had received
treatment for their disorder within the past year
,Treatment in the Past
● For much of history, people with mental illness have been treated very poorly. It
was believed that mental illness was caused by demonic possession, witchcraft,
or an angry god (Szasz, 1960). For example, in medieval times, abnormal
behaviors were viewed as a sign that a person was possessed by demons.
-If someone was considered to be possessed, there were several forms of treatment to
release spirits from the individual. The most common treatment was exorcism, often
conducted by priests or other religious figures: Incantations and prayers were said over
the person’s body, and they may have been given some medicinal drinks
● Another form of treatment for extreme cases of mental illness was trephining: A
small hole was made in the afflicted individual’s skull to release spirits from the
body.
● Generally speaking, most people who exhibited strange behaviors were greatly
misunderstood and treated cruelly. The prevailing theory of psychopathology in
earlier history was the idea that mental illness was the result of demonic
, possession by either an evil spirit or an evil god because early beliefs incorrectly
attributed all unexplainable phenomena to deities deemed either good or evil
● From the late 1400s to the late 1600s, a common belief perpetuated by some
religious organizations was that some people made pacts with the devil and
committed horrible acts, such as eating babies
● Asylums were the first institutions created for the specific purpose of housing
people with psychological disorders, but the focus was ostracizing them from
society rather than treating their disorders.
● In the late 1700s, a French physician, Philippe Pinel, argued for more humane
treatment of people with mental illness. He suggested that they be unchained
and talked to, and that’s just what he did for patients at La Salpêtrière in Paris in
1795
● the 19th century, Dorothea Dix led reform efforts for mental health care in the
United States. She investigated how those who are mentally ill and poor were
cared for, and she discovered an underfunded and unregulated system that
perpetuated abuse of this population. Horrified by her findings, Dix began
lobbying various state legislatures and the U.S. Congress for change. Her efforts
led to the creation of the first mental asylums in the United States.
● At Willard Psychiatric Center in upstate New York, for example, one treatment
was to submerge patients in cold baths for long periods of time. Electroshock
treatment was also used, and the way the treatment was administered often
broke patients’ backs; in 1943, doctors at Willard administered 1,443 shock
treatments
-Electroshock is now called electroconvulsive treatment, and the therapy is still used,
but with safeguards and under anesthesia.
Congress passed and John F. Kennedy signed the Mental Retardation Facilities and
Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act, which provided federal support
and funding for community mental health centers
This legislation changed how mental health services were delivered in the United
States. It started the process of deinstitutionalization, the closing of large asylums, by
providing for people to stay in their communities and be treated locally. In 1955, there
were 558,239 severely mentally ill patients institutionalized at public hospitals
