The Views of Mental illness
By Raabiah and Amanda
To Begin With...
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Sources
- A History of Treatment for Mental Illness from the Washington Post by unknown.
- A solution that now looks crazy from The New York Times by Richard A. Friedman.
- Girl Scouts Engage in the Fight Against Mental Illness Stigma with Mental Awareness Patch from Mental Health Weekly Digest by unknown.
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A history of treatment for mental illness
POSITION:
The mentally ill are treated better now than in 19th century.
DETAILS:
- In the 19th century, the mentally ill were forced to comply with cruel and ineffective treatments.
- Abuse was widespread.
2. Since atrocious conditions are exposed patients demand more rights.
3. Overcrowded, state run facilities are slowly replaced by community-based treatments as drugs to control mental illness gain support.
4. In the late 20th century the Supreme Court ruled the state cannot hold someone who can live on their own and are not dangerous.
ANALYSIS:
This article shows how the treatments changed from the 19th century to the late 20th century. It started as cruel and barbaric and developed into more considerate and open-minded care.
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A Solution That Now Looks Crazy
POSITION:
The government helped create better mental facilities.
DETAILS:
1.Before the government changed the way that the mentally ill were treated there were good intentions, but bad actions.2. In 1963 the government was trying to reform the disgraced mental facilities. The officials let out many patients, but they ended up in jails and prisons and nursing homes and homeless.
ANALYSIS:
Before the government changed the views on the mentally ill, the mentally ill would end up in places that were not correct for their condition. Now, it is different as there isn't mentally ill people ending up in places they should not be in like jails or homeless.
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Girls Scouts Engage in the fight against Mental Illness Stigma
POSITION:
The Girls Scouts decide to help erase the stigma on the mentally ill through public education. They believe that just because a person does not have a stable mental condition, it doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to have the rights and opportunities of others.
DETAILS:
- The fight against the mental illness stigma has been taken up by girl scouts.
- Mental Illness is more prominent than diabetes and cancer
- Approximately, 1 in 4 people will be diagnosed with mental illness in their life.
ANALYSIS:
This article shows how before, public education was a struggle or the mentally ill as they were never really considered for needing further education. Now, public education is available to both the mentally ill and people with normal conditions to help them see more opportunities and not be bound because of their illness.
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Oppositions
- 1.The mentally ill still have a stigma and is now less prominent than diabetes and cancer.
- 1 in 4 people are likely to get diagnosed with a mental illness in their lifetime. It's a pretty big statistic. Mental illness is more common in a lot of people. Mental illnesses have extremes and 1 in 4 people could have either a high extreme or low extreme. 2. In the 19th century, they did what they thought was best since they didn't have as great of technology as we have now.
- Their means of treating mental illness was humane and inconsiderate of their condition. Though there was no good technology, there were other ways to treat mental illness without forcing them to go through the torture.
3. In the effort to have better mental facilities, the government deinstitutionalized many patients, some of which ended up in jails or prisons. This shows the government did not really care about what happened to the mentally ill.
- The mental facilities were created to hold the mentally ill and treat them.Some ended up in jails and prisons only if they were responsible for an illegal action. Mental facilities isolated the mentally ill to prevent any other person unknown to their condition from harming them.