Initially, mental illness was not treated and people were secluded, but as time went by, new laws and policies were administered to advocate for their needs. In earlier years, mental illness was seen as “demonic possessions or religious punishment” () Families and churches were responsible for caring for people with mental illness due to the stigmas of mental illness. But in the 1700s, the first hospital was introduced in Williamsburg, Virginia (). It sounds like a shift towards benefitting people with mental illness, when in fact it was the opposite. They were built to seclude mentally ill people from the rest of the society and they were treated crudely. For instance, they used ice baths and shock machines to attempt to cure them. () Subsequently
