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Mental Illness in America

In the film she revisits the hospital where she lived for six months and brings light to the "dark corners of US psychiatric care" (Maxen 174) Maxen states that even though the antipsychotic drugs given to mental patients today are not as dangerous as they were in the 60s, access to treatments is still rare for most people who need them
             In her article, Maxen cites from a Psychiatry Journal that "more than 10 percent of people with serious mental illness are now homeless or in prison" due to government budget cuts from the 1980s (L. Davis et al.14).  Maxen says Winer's intent is to bring to the attention that many patients in state hospitals were dehumanized and doctors were frustrated by inadequate resources for treatments. Her recollection of tortured patients, abandonment, and cruel and unsual treatment and punishment in the Kings Park Mental Institution shows the disparities in the treatment and amount of mentally ill people compared to the amount of resources they have. There is a need for social change in how mental illness is treated and how institutions are attempting to help patients admitted. Doctors Carl Fisher and Jeffery Lieberman offer facts in the Annals of Internal Medicine proving that people with mental disorders are a very small portion of violence problems in America but think that "hospitals should capitalize on the public opinion in order to receive more funding and resources for their patients" (Fisher Lieberman 423). Mentally ill people are often targeted as the reason for violence and crime in the country, therefore furthering the stigma. Fisher, Lieberman and Maxen advocate for education and treatment of mental illness rather than demonizing these patients as creators of violence, hence part of the title in Fisher and Lieberman's article, "Putting Compassion Before Fear." Reporter Fawn Johnson offers a political standpoint on the issue of mental institutions.


Essays Related to Mental Illness in America

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  • Word Count: 3762
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2. Art, Artists and Mental Illness

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4. Stigmatizing Mental Illness

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5. Mental illness

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7. Schizophrenia

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8. Bipolar

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9. Bipolar Disorder

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