Mentally ill patients were sick, and people knew they needed a place to receive help and treatments, and so the creation of mental hospitals and institutionalization began. “The general thought was that mentally ill people belonged in institutions to receive appropriate treatment, and for their own safety and the safety of others” (Kornblum; Pg. 81). Society was afraid of the mentally ill, and they believed they should be put in a mental hospital. Soon, the need for mental hospitals grew rapidly. After a while, people began to wonder if the mental hospitals were even helping the ill or were they just being locked …show more content…
Why did deinstitutionalization come about and what have been its major consequences?
The deinstitutionalization of mental patients was an important late-twentieth-century trend because society wanted the mentally ill to experience life and not be locked away forever. “Beginning in the mid- 1950s, large numbers of mental patients were deinstitutionalized, or realized from mental hospitals, based on the belief that psychiatric patients would have a higher quality of life it treated in their communities rather than in mental hospitals” (Kornblum; Pg. 84). Everyone deserves a chance to live life, and not be hidden from it. Mental ill patients were let go from hospitals in hopes of them gaining the ability to function in life. Unfortunately, some mentally ill patients were not able to handle day to day life. A majority of them often ended up on the streets, and barely received any care for …show more content…
“In studying social problems related to mental illness, basic sociological perspectives can help clarify the relevant issues and explain some aspects of the origins of mental disorders” (Kornblum; Pg. 63). The interactionist perspective, conflict perspective, and functionalist perspective are the same because they are all perspectives of how mental illness affects society. In other words, these perspectives deal with how we interact with one and other. The interactionist perspective deals with how society defines “normal” and “deviant” behaviors. The conflict perspective deals with how mental illness may lead to deprivation and inequality in society. Lastly, the functionalist perspective deals with how mental illness causes a social problem due to inability to provide effective