NUR 4150 Chapter 1 Mental Health and Mental Illness (ATI chapter 1) Study Guide

Chapter 1 Mental Health and Mental Illness (ATI ch 1)  Historical Overview o Early beliefs centered on mental illness in terms of evil spirits or supernatural/magical powers that entered the body and taken over o Those who suffered from a mental illness were often beaten and starved and tortured  This was done to try and get rid of the evil spirits o Also used witchcraft on individuals; burned at the stake because they were thought to be witches o Hippocrates associated mental illness with an irregularity in the interaction among the 4 humors  Blood  Black bile  Yellow bile  Phlegm o Middle ages: mentally ill were sent on ships to the sea with no guidance (ship of fools) o Middle eastern Islamic countries - began to establish special units or general hospitals – first asylums for those with mental illnesses o Colonial America – mental illness was equated with witchcraft who were then burned at the stake because they felt like they were going to do harm to others o Cold stone buildings with tall fences, metal beds, no mattress (mental illness image thought of) o Benjamin Rush  First hospital in America to admit individuals with mental illness was est in Philadelphia in mid-18th century  He is often called the father of American psychiatry – was a physician at the hospital and initiated the first humane treatment for individuals with mental illness in the US o In 19th century, Dorothea Dix was successful in lobbying for the establishment of state hospitals for individuals with mental illness o Linda Richards – first American psychiatric nurse  First school of psychiatric nursing at McLean asylum in Waverly Massachusetts in 1882  Psych nursing was not included in curricula of schools of nursing until 1955 (took from to include psych in nursing)