The Evolution of Mental Institutions in the U.S.

Rachel Brent

Website

I chose The Evolution of Mental Insitutions In The U.S. as my NHD topic because of my interest in a medical career.  Seeing as my mother is a psychiatrist, my father is an ophthalmologist (MD specialized in eye and vision care), my uncle is a sports medical doctor, and my aunt is a pharmacist, I have been around medical evoluations and treatments for all different types of health concerns.  The mentally ill also intrigue me because equality is a very strong topic to me whether it is equality for the LGBT community, or people with mental disabilities being treated the same as a normal person.  

        My research was more efficient with the help of my school library and librarian, access to the Internet, access to AHEC (U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center), and some suggestions for subjects to research to help my product from my history teacher and my mother.  Saint Patrick School’s library and librarian helped me by letting me look for books on Nellie Bly and other people involved with mental institutions in the U.S.  Having access to the Internet helped me with my research by helping me find primary and secondary sources and also giving me access to the whole project on Weebly and Google Docs.  

        Technology has always intrested me, so I thought creating a website would be a good oppurtunity to learn.  I also work faster when it involves technology because it intrigues me more, I have access to more information, and ways to create my project, etc.  I started my project off by making a layout, for example, the pages, links, and connected pages.  I worked on adding the pictures and their sources when they were cited to my bibliography, which is on an external page.  Then I made my papagraphs and what each one would focus on. After that, I actually typed the paragraphs while still using more new sources and again, adding them to my bibliography.  

        The evolution of mental institutions in the U.S. relates to the topic of Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange in History because we had to explore medical science for correct treatments for the mentally ill, then we encountered society and their perspective on the patients, staff, and government involved in this evolution.  Exchange took place in the ‘cause and effect’ aspect, for example the doctors would test treatments and operations on the mentally ill patients then see what effect it had on them.  They also had to have an exchange between society, the institutions, and the government.  Due to the government’s changes in the institutions, they would have to take societies’ reactions to that and use it to tell if their change had a good or bad outcome.  If society didn’t like it, they would have problems which would add to the troubles they had with the institutions.  If the people liked the changes the government made, they would continue to work toward making similar changes that would benefit everyone.