When state hospitals were communities: the golden age of these facilities left a legacy still seen in mental healthcare.(IN RETROSPECT)

From: Behavioral Health Management | Date: July 1, 2005| Author: | Copyright information

In the 21st century we take it for granted that we treat mentally ill people in programs in the communities where they live. Yet in another age, we cared for them in state hospitals. These hospitals were self-contained villages and communities. They often were called asylums and offered a way of life as well as total medical and psychiatric care. A New York state hospital described a patient's life there in August 1853 in these four lines from "Asylum Life; Or, The Advantages Of A Disadvantage": 

 
   I have no care for copper or 
   coin, 
   I have no fear of any one's 
   ...

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