Rosenhan Experiment Essay

Institutional care was condemned, as in many cases patients’ mental conditions deteriorated, and institutions were not able to treat the individual in a holistic manner. In many state institutions, patients numerously outnumbered the poorly trained staff. Many patients were boarded in these facilities for extensive periods of time without receiving any services. By 1963, the average stay for an individual with a diagnosis of schizophrenia was eleven years. As the media and newspapers publicized the inhumane conditions that existed in many psychiatric hospitals, awareness grew and there was much public pressure to create improved treatment options (Young Minds Advocacy, 2016). .

But, why is it that these numbers are increasing in jails and prisons? According to the study “Mentally Ill Inmates: Financial Impacts and Opportunities for the Future” by Nancy A. DeFerrari, the number of beds for mentally ill individuals has decreased significantly in the last 30 or so years. She states that the number has decreased from close to 600,000 in the 1960s to about 40,000 or less presently. DeFerrari also makes the point that just because the beds for these people are decreasing, does not mean that the number of these individuals are too.

After some research the experimenter obtained opinions about the outcome of the experiment from psychiatrists, college sophomores,

In the video, “The New Asylums”, it demonstrated how deinstitutionalization has left thousands of mentally ill patients in the hands of the prison system. As the mental health hospitals closed down, the police department and prison system has become responsible for the mentally ill people that are on the streets. There was a firm point made about the release of mentally ill patients- “When hundreds of thousands of mentally ill are released, they do not magically become healthy. They went to the streets, became homeless, and turned to a system that cannot say no.” The video also stated that today, there are nearly 500,000 mentally ill people being held in jails and prisons throughout the country. Furthermore, there was no safety net for those

Around the 1970’s and 1980’s around the United States many mental hospitals were shut down. There were many reasons why they closed these Asylums was because money, and knowing that there was only about twenty county asylums were built around the country. The asylums also known as the Looney bin was established in Britain after passing in 1808 county asylum act. There were so many patients in these asylums around the world in 1955 about 558,239 severely mentally ill people in the United States were accounted for. Now in these times any mentally ill people don’t get help they just go straight to jail without proper diagnosis or treatment. People need to know these people need extreme care and treatment. Even regular people or considered the norm in today’s society eventually go crazy when they’re in prison too long. We have as much people that are mentally ill as regularly incarcerated. There is one prison in Houston Texas that does take care there mentally ill. We have about 2.2 million

During the 1800s, treating individuals with psychological issues was a problematic and disturbing issue. Society didn’t understand mental illness very well, so the mentally ill individuals were sent to asylums primarily to get them off the streets. Patients in asylums were usually subjected to conditions that today we would consider horrific and inhumane due to the lack of knowledge on mental illnesses.

Felicia Allen is a 32 year old woman, who was initially brought into therapy after an attempt to steal a bus. Due to her reported “emotionally disturbed” nature, this consult became a priority. The police report states that Ms. Allen pulled out a knife, and threatened the driver after the driver declined her dollar bills. She then took control of the bus, and crashed it across the street. Upon our meeting, Ms. Allen was fidgety, and swayed back and forth all the while mumbling to herself. If she were questioned, she would look up and say “Sorry, sorry.” As far as patient history goes, Ms. Allen started hearing voices when she was 5 years old. These auditory hallucinations were mostly composed of critical, disparaging voices that made comments on her actions and behaviors. Her severe symptoms led her to be hospitalized fairly consistently since she was 11. Ever since she was young, she has been driven to please, and has a strong desire to be independent. Felicia has been prescribed clozapine for 1 calendar year, which helped her auditory hallucinations a great deal. Given the above symptoms and information, I have diagnosed Felicia Allen with schizophrenia.

In 1955, over 559,000 individuals resided in inpatient psychiatric hospitals. By 1995, however, the number had drastically diminished to 69,000, (National Health Policy Forum, 2000). This drastic reduction was largely due to the discovery of antipsychotic medications in the 1950s, and the deinstitutionalization movement of the 1960s, wherein several thousands of mentally ill individuals were released from psychiatric institutions to return to their communities for treatment. Mental health centers (MHCs) were conceptualized during deinstitutionalization to provide treatment to these newly-released mentally ill persons in their communities. Although efforts were well-intended, the MHCs failed to serve the

In 1965, there was a histrionic change in the method that mental health care was delivered in the United States. The focus went from State Mental Hospitals to outpatient settings for the treatment of mental health issues. With the passing of Medicaid, States were encouraged to move patients out of the hospital setting (Pan, 2013). This process failed miserably due to under funding and understaffing for the amout of patients that were released from the State Mental Hospitals. This resulted in patients, as well as their families, who were in dire need of mental health services. This population turned to either incarceration (jails and/or prisons) or emergency departments as a primary source of care for their loved ones.

Ethically there was concern, that the level of deception involved, could have caused detriment to future patients, since the embarrassment from the initial study had a direct affect on the judgements of genuine patients. The reliability of these results may be questioned, as the participant numbers were relatively small; however they were valid as the results showed a strong correlation from each of the hospitals investigated. Rosenhan’s studies have been a catalyst towards further research into schizophrenia, especially since they were ecologically valid.

symptoms of delusions (Frank, 1998). According to Foster and Levinson (1998) this client has a

The mentally ill were treated very inhumanly in the early insane asylums. Some of the

The two experiments were a tested at different time periods and for different purposes. For instance, the Milgram experiment was originally tested to study obedience to authority, in response to Adolf Eichmann trial, a Nazi war criminal, that stated he,” was just stating orders under the Reich.” The experiment proved to be that under authority rule, actions, even if morally wrong and unethical can be still taken forward with due to a strict authority presence.

Since the nineteen eighties when President Reagan was in office, I recall him basically shutting down some mental facilities and discharged them to the streets. Having lived through this and seen some of the effects it has had on some communities is troublesome. So where did some of these people go (besides dying by suicide or failed living arrangements)? Nursing homes and some to assisted living facilities. This is reflected in our reading of Touhy, T. A., Jett, K. F., Ebersole, P., & Hess, P. A. (2016) that although not licensed psychiatric treatment facilities, they are providing the majority of care to older adult with psychiatric conditions. And what is more troublesome is the numbers related to mental health conditions that range from sixty-five percent to ninety-one percent with only twenty percent receiving treatment for their condition. We try to provide the care they need but are met with a shortage of trained personnel, limited availability and access to psychiatric services, inadequate insurance to meet their healthcare needs (p. 358). So

According to the study, auditory hallucination is greatly associated with suicidal thoughts and behavior. It refers to the experience of hearing voices when there is no speaker and is frequently encountered in psychiatric illness, such as schizophrenia or mania (. In the class, we had the opportunity to experienced how it feels to have auditory hallucinations. We listened to the voices using our headset while answering the questions on the white board. That experienced was hilarious. I was not scared, but I was completely disturbed by the voices. I had a hard time concentrating. I can’t hardly understand the question and I had a hard time thinking for an answer. Even answering the simplest question was hard. I got only 1 question correct. I