How Did Dorothea Dix Treat Mental Illness

During the 1700’s the jails were not only used to confine criminals, but they confined people with mental illness as well. People with mental illness were subjected to inhumane treatment, even when the individual was admitted

Doretha Dix played a major role in the prison reforms. She stood up to the Massachusetts state legislature and told them that the sick and insane "confined in this Commonwealth in cages, closets, cellars, stalls,

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.

Dix’s life changed in 1841, when she began teaching Sunday school at the East Cambridge Jail, a women’s prison. She discovered the alarming treatment of the prisoners, specifically those with mental illnesses, whose place of residence had no heat. She immediately went to court and ensured an order to provide heat for the prisoners, along with other advancements. She began traveling around the state to research the conditions in prisons, and ultimately arranged a document that was presented to the Massachusetts Legislature, which enlarged the budget to expand the Mental Hospital at Worcester. Dix was not content with reforms in Massachusetts. She toured the country documenting the conditions and treatment of patients, campaigning to authorize

Dix was greatly horrified to find that mentally ill women were confined with hardened criminals in a bare, foul-smelling, unheated jail room. After witnessing this she brought her findings to a local court, though her charges were denied they did improve the women’s living conditions. Only few institutions offered adequate treatment towards the mentally ill. Determined by her newly found knowledge, Dix sought to change the conditions of the mentally

Before the 19th century in the American society, criminals were executed, whipped, and held in dark cells with little food and water. The insane wandered around asylums or were kept in tiny cells and were not treated properly. In incarcerations prisoners were worked without stopping and treated inhumanly. Reformers wanted to establish an official institution for the insane and the criminals that was humane. They believed that reform and rehabilitation was possible in a controlled environment. As part of the humanitarian reforms sweeping through America, asylums and prisons were created for criminals and the mentally ill. The importance of human perfectibility led some reformers to care for the physically and mentally ill. Many people lead this movement, including Dorothea Dix. She traveled the country visiting a large amount of asylums and prisons. Through Dix’s work and others’ the treatment of patients improved vastly.

Dorothea Puente was not always a Puente. She was born as Dorothea Helen Gray in Redlands, California on January 9, 1929. Trudy Mae Yates, her mother, and Jesse James Gray, her father, according to Dorothea Puente, were alcoholics and abused her. Her father was a cotton-picker, and Puente claimed that her mother was a prostitute. However, how accurate is this information is debatable since Puente has been proven as a compulsive liar. She has lied about her life since she was young so as to make her seem more interesting to others and gain attention. When she was eight years old, her father died from tuberculosis in 1937. Her mother died a year later from a motorcycle accident in 1938. Left as an orphan at a very young age, she was sent to an

By 1837 Dorothea had traveled over 30,000 miles researching and lobbying for better treatment of those looked away, neglected, and physically/mentally hurt. She helped to establish thirty-two new institutions for the mentally ill across the U.S. In 1843, thirteen psychiatric hospitals existed along with 123 mental institutions had opened. Also her ideas on reform of people serving time caused many systems to change these methods (Dorothea Dix: Biography Reference Center). Dix dedicated a lot of her life and time to help strangers.

Dorothea Lynde Dix was salient to the development of both the Reform and Civil War Eras that she lived during, and to the overall United States. Moreover, Dorothea Dix had minor, but crucial, contributions to the education of children during her early years, which would help her effort in creating different perspective and establishing institutions for the mentally ill. Her onerous efforts even required her to plead to the State Legislative body, which was essential in achieving her goals for the mentally ill. In addition, Dix contributed to the Civil War when she was appointed superintendent of nurses for the Union army. Dix’s action would leave a permanent mark to the character of the United States when she helped form institutions for the mentally ill and wrote the “Bill of the Benefit of the Indigent Insane.”

People like to assume when they are happy others must automatically be happy as well. And a lot of the time, it is because we are not being exposed to the inhumane and dark experiences that some persons face behind closed doors. Now more than ever, are people like social workers fighting to make sure we stand up and advocate for anyone in need. Especially making sure that persons who can’t advocate for themselves get the treatment they truly deserve. Through the altruistic efforts of Dorothea Lynde Dix, she advocated for the mentally ill and for prisoners around the United States, Canada and Europe.

When she was nearly 40, she reached a turning point in her life. A friend asked if she would take over his Sunday School class for women at the East Cambridge prison. On March 28, 1841, Dix went to the jail to teach the class and was shocked by what she found. A number of the inmates had committed only one "crime": they were mentally ill. Dix was appalled to find hardened criminals, feeble-minded "idiots," and the insane incarcerated together in a bare, foul-smelling, unheated jail room.

Dorothea Dix was an extraordinary woman who wore many hats: family caregiver, teacher, author, advocate, social reformer, school and hospital founder, and superintendent. Dorothea Dix held one role more important and noteworthy than any of these however; she was a nurse. Dix’s work advocating for prisoners, the mentally ill and women changed the profession of nursing, as well as aspects of the healthcare system, forever.

In 1813, when she first visited the Newgate Prison,she was shocked at how they treated the prisoners. At the time, many prisoners ranged from children to adults and ethical rules were not reinforced. She became the first reformer who focused on the moral improvement of prisoners through personal contact, conversations,education, and work. Soon afterward, other women stepped up to join her volunteering committee. They arranged prison visits and thus this became the first professional probation services. (Steyart, 2013).

This paper gives a short description of the considerable number of achievements and commitments Dorothea Lynde Dix gave during her time on earth. This essay covers not just how she got her education, but in addition to how she took that knowledge and went to share her knowledge with other people. She has had numerous achievements including her known councils, making mental health facilities, and furthermore being associated with the war. Dix did not get this opportunity handed to her, she had to work to achieve. With fearlessness, she drove herself to battle through many fights including her own sickness and the administration. Numerous women did not get the respect they deserved in government back in the 1800’s. They were relied upon to remain

The means of violence and fighting back during the Romantic period developed the American identity into a more civilized and humane manner that handles conflicts in society and between two parties by its newly found ways of expression rather than violence. Throughout the reform era, between 1825-1850, America sought to expand its democratic ideals and a civilized approach to conflicts between two or more opposing sides. The first answer of solving a conflict typically ended in violence, but through the reforms of different systems and people in America, the options began to expand into less aggressive forms of resolution. One activist, Dorothea Dix, began striving for the improvement of the treatment of prisoners when she saw how they were being treated in an East Cambridge prison. During this time period, mentally ill and violent criminals were habituating together, leading to criminals violently beating and violating the mentally ill patients. Dix documented all of her discoveries in great detail to then be presented to the legislature of Massachusetts, where she demanded action towards reform. Her discoveries of these prisoner’s dramatic accounts of prisoners being starved, physically and sexually abused by their keepers, and even left naked without heat or sanitation. She writes how she actively makes an effort to help actually reform these people into functioning members of society rather than just locking them up and wasting money doing so; “I am the