In Ten Days in a Mad-House the author Nellie Bly took an undercover journalist assignment to pretend to be insane to investigate reports of brutality and neglect at an insane asylum. Nellie Bly convinced the doctors who examined her that she was insane. Nellie Bly experienced the hospitals horrible conditions firsthand: spoiled food; the patients being mistreated and abused; unclean and unsanitary conditions. Throughout history, there have been drastic changes in how mentally ill patients are treated and cared for; most of these changes occurred because of society’s views and knowledge of mental illness. Living conditions for insane patients have improved and funds for treatment have increased. Modern insane asylums have better food and treatment
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At Blackwell’s Island the doctors and nurses treated the inmates very poorly. The authority treated the inmates like animals that needed to be trained instead of human beings. According to Nellie Bly, patients were scolded if they tried to talk, and if they wanted to walk around in order to take the stiffness out of them, they were told to sit down and be still for long periods of time. Sitting for long periods of time can have effects on the brains of all humans, especially the mentally ill. Brain function slows when your body is inactive for too long. The brain will get less fresh blood and oxygen, which are needed to trigger the release of brain and mood enhancing chemicals, according to Dr. Mercola. In the basement of the asylum the nurses would make ugly remarks and threats, twists fingers and slap the faces of the unruly patients (Bly, 77). There were numerous other inhumane forms of treatment at Blackwell’s Island.
In modern mental hospitals, patients are given more freedom, and physicians and nurses have a greater knowledge of the medication, illnesses, and therapies patients need. According to Natasha Tracy, a patient who was diagnosed bipolar and was committed to a mental hospital in 2015, she was able to sign out of the hospital to spend time at the park next door for short periods of time. Tracy received the therapy and medication she needed at the
At Blackwell’s Island the doctors and nurses treated the inmates very poorly. The authority treated the inmates like animals that needed to be trained instead of human beings. According to Nellie Bly, patients were scolded if they tried to talk, and if they wanted to walk around in order to take the stiffness out of them, they were told to sit down and be still for long periods of time. Sitting for long periods of time can have effects on the brains of all humans, especially the mentally ill. Brain function slows when your body is inactive for too long. The brain will get less fresh blood and oxygen, which are needed to trigger the release of brain and mood enhancing chemicals, according to Dr. Mercola. In the basement of the asylum the nurses would make ugly remarks and threats, twists fingers and slap the faces of the unruly patients (Bly, 77). There were numerous other inhumane forms of treatment at Blackwell’s Island.
In modern mental hospitals, patients are given more freedom, and physicians and nurses have a greater knowledge of the medication, illnesses, and therapies patients need. According to Natasha Tracy, a patient who was diagnosed bipolar and was committed to a mental hospital in 2015, she was able to sign out of the hospital to spend time at the park next door for short periods of time. Tracy received the therapy and medication she needed at the