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A psychiatric hospital (also called a mental hospital or asylum) is a
hospital specializing in the treatment of persons with mental illness. Psychiatric wards differ only in that they are
a unit of a larger hospital.
Mental hospitals have a number of differences from other hospitals. First, they generally have elaborate procedures to prevent
suicide by patients (for example, appliances with power cords are not allowed, and
access to stairways and high, open windows is restricted). Second, they attempt to reduce the amount of sensory stimulation that
the patients have. Contrary to popular belief, mental hospitals are generally quiet, even boring places. Third, mental hospitals
often try to provide as normal an environment as possible. For example, unlike most other hospitals, many patients in mental
hospitals wear street clothes rather than examination patient garments.
Since the 1960s, efforts have been made to improve mental health care. Nevertheless,
many problems remain, especially for those with little money to pay for more expensive facilities. The use of restraints and
medication for punishment rather than treatment, the lack of adequate staff and resources, the lack of documentation when it
comes to forced treatment, as well as other serious deficencies remain all too common.
Types of mental hospitals
There are a number of different types of mental hospital.
Crisis stabilization
One is the crisis stabilization unit, which is in effect an emergency
room for mental situations. Because involuntary
commitment laws in many jurisdictions require a judge to issue a commitment order within a short time (often 72 hours) of the
patient's entry to the unit and because moving a severely ill mental patient can be extremely dangerous, especially as the
patient may try to harm himself/herself or others, many of these stabilization units have conference rooms which are used as
courtrooms for emergency commitment procedures.
Medium-term
Another type of mental hospital is used for medium term care lasting several weeks. Most drugs used for psychiatric purposes
take several weeks to take effect and the main purpose of these hospitals is to watch over the patient while the drugs taken have
their expected effect and the patient can be discharged.
Hospitals for prisoners with mental illness
One other type of mental hospital is designed for long-term care: a combination hospital and prison for the "criminally
insane": typically, people with a personality disorder who
have committed serious crimes. In the United States, these are generally operated by the state government and exist in a few
centralized locations. In many cases, persons within these hospitals have been charged with serious crimes and have been found
not guilty by reason of insanity. As a result, in addition to the precautions to prevent suicide there are also precautions
against escape (such as are found in a prison). The treatment of persons within such
institutions has been a subject of long-standing debate.
Half-way houses
One final type of mental institution which is not a hospital is a community-based half-way house which provides assisted
living for mental patients for an extended period of time. These institutions are considered to be one of the most important
parts of a mental health system by many psychiatrists, although many
localities fail to provide sufficient funding for them.
Anti-psychiatry objections to mental hospitals
Some observers, including Thomas Szasz, have objected to calling mental hospitals "hospitals" (see anti-psychiatry). Lawrence Stevens has described mental hospitals as
"jails."
In particular, anti-psychiatry activists have advocated for the abolition of long-term hospitals for the criminally insane, on
the grounds that the insanity defence should not be permitted and those confined to such institutions should be incarcerated in a
regular prison instead, others on the grounds that the inmates' confinement to these "hospitals" punishes them for crimes of
which they have been judged not guilty, and others on various other
grounds.
History of mental hospitals
- to be written, should mention
- Asylums
- Bedlam
- development of modern humane attitudes
- In the U.S., JFK's call for reforms and the results
- Care in the
community
Mental hospitals in film and television
Mental hospitals are often depicted as frightening places in fiction, where treatments are forced upon inmates by uncaring
staff, or inmates themselves are either violently deranged or sinister. Although there have been cases of abuse of patients in
real life, and some conditions do occasionally result in violent behavior, this stereotype of mental hospitals is misleading.
Some recent depictions of mental hospitals in fiction include:
- Arkham Asylum in Batman: The Animated Series - TV series
- Girl, Interrupted - movie
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest - movie
- Session 9 - movie
- Sharon's
Secret - movie
- In the movie Terminator 2: Judgment
Day, Sarah Connor is locked away for her (apparently) delusory belief that the end of the world is about to be brought
about by a killer artificial intelligence
- In the movie Twelve Monkeys Bruce Willis's character is, rather understandably, placed into a psychiatric hospital because of his
claims that he is from the future. He meets the manic character played by Brad
Pitt within.
See also
External links
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