State Boys Rebellion Video Analysis

While watching the institutional videos, I could not help but think about how the residents felt while living in such horrible institutions. Throughout the clips, there was a common theme within each that the residents of institutions were not treated the same as many other civilians. The residents were treated horrible along with the conditions of the institutions being horrendous and unbearable for them. It was clear that the employees did not care about the residents. The videos on Pennhurst, Willow brook, and the State Boys Rebellion opened my eyes to this dilemma that was presented in the past and possibly present. I was unaware about people with disabilities even attending institutions. It shows me how the media does not relay these issues …show more content…
Even though the conditions were shocking, I was more astounded by the fact that no one did anything about this issue. The government realizes that there is an issue with mistreated residents and unbearable conditions but yet still nothing is being changed throughout the years. Throughout the videos, I noticed a common trend that the institutions were under staffed by a large quantity. Multiple institutions had the same issue. It makes me wonder if it was on purpose or did the government not want to hire more people because it costed more money. Hiring more staff members would eliminate the issues of the conditions at institutions being unbearable for the residents. Another issue that I was unaware about how the residents were taking medications or given treatments that they did not need. There was the issue about how residents were being given radiation and not being told. I find this utterly disturbing. The residents in institutions are not lab rats and the employees/doctors cannot expose them to such treatments without them knowing. I believe that the residents were being taken advantage of when in institutions. The employees mistreated them and even made some residents’ condition worse due to neglect. The videos about the different institutions were very similar. Each institution had the same conditions and the residents complained about the same issues. The residents were not treated like human, they were treated like animals and in some cases almost worse. It makes me sad to think that parents sent their children to the institutions with the intent to help them but instead made them worse. The parents of residents trusted the employees/doctors to take care of their children. Overall my understanding of the developmental disabilities has changed from watching the videos. I feel bad for people with disabilities because they had to