The Pros And Cons Of Deinstitutionalization

Deinstitutionalization gives many people seeking or needing psychological help the chance to try alternative treatments rather than being put straight into a hospital. With this, there is a decent chance that a person may find an alternative treatment suited to their liking and needs. Also, countries such as the United States who saw a dramatic decline in the number of patients who were confined to mental institutions from 1955 to 2010 may have had the opportunity to use the money saved or not used to run the institutions on something considered to be more important at the time. In 1955 there was a peak of 560,000 mentally ill in psychiatric hospitals and by 2010 that number dropped to 43,000. (Pan, McClelland, Vongkiatkajorn, Levintova, & Patterson, 2013) With a drop of 92.32% I believe there may have been quite a bit of money saved but I also read mental institutions were under-funded to begin with so I’m not fully sure if much money was saved. One more good thing about Deinstitutionalization is that since the mentally ill are not usually confined to a hospital, most of them can live their lives under the supervision of trusted family members and/or guardians. This gives them the opportunity to live a normal happy life without the worry of being placed in an institution. However, there are quite a bit of downsides to Deinstitutionalization. One of these things being that people with at-risk mental health will not receive appropriate treatment. People who are suffering from severe psychological problems will typically be hospitalized for a short amount of time before they are …show more content…
While I believe I understand Deinstitutionalization means, there are many variable to take into account. While reading and researching this topic I found a numerous amount of conflicting views and opinions, many of which contradicted each other. In the end it seems I may have ended up with more questions than