Medical Malpractice

Asylums???

why dont they use asylums any more? i know it was cruel but i wanna no more detail

Public Comments

1. Asylums are "mental hospitals" by any other name. Asylums have the negative history associated with the word. The institution, call it asylum or mental hospital, due to humanitarian efforts, is much more humane. But unfortunately, some of it still goes on today.
2. Because psychiatrists have figured out a better way to treat patients, rather then just locking them up, medicating them and not helping them get better. They used to use electroconvulsive therapy which is illegal now in nearly all countries. Now, instead of all of that... They use medication, therapy in group or individual, family meetings, support groups and have courses for the mentally ill. But if someone is so mentally ill that they need continuous watching and treatment they will probably place them in a psych ward at the hospital. Hope this helps.
3. Several reasons. As Muso said, psychiatrists have a better bag of medicines to treat mental illnesses. A bigger reason, however, has to do with the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement kicked off a belief in the inherent dignity of all people, including those with mental illnesses. It was then found that most folks with mental illness were capable of living within the community. The idea of the "least restrictive" setting came into play then. That's the idea that a person should be in the least restrictive setting possible in order to avoid the cruelty of detaining someone against their will. There are still state mental hospitals, but most of the patients there are diverted from the criminal justice system. We've discovered the capabilities of those with mental illness and realized that people with mental illness are not scary, just different.
4. why would you want to know why they dont lock people up and treat them like criminals and lab rats for being ill
5. The word was dropped by most countries when the movie Holocaust came out. In the movie, the daughter of Fritz Weaver was sent to an asylum. In Germany this meant a sealed truck filled with Jews and even a large building that was specially sealed. The Nazi's killed the people who were mentally ill, retarded, or handicapped. This was the German's first use of gas to murder. Hitler's henchmen saw gas was the best answer to the final solution. The Jewish league asked the UN to have the word asylum changed. All countries except Cuba, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan ceased using the vulgar word.