Involuntary Commitment: The civil rights of the mental health patient

The policy that governs involuntary commitment has its genesis in the judiciary. The U.S. Supreme Court began to reshape mental health law during the 1960s, amidst the civil rights revolution, which conferred equal status under the law to all Americans. Though not a traditional minority, the mentally ill came to be viewed as a disadvantaged group that had suffered terribly at the hands of the majority. That view is reflected in the Court's decisions and in the modern approach to involuntary commitment. Also reflected in modern policy is socie

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more of an interest when the mentally ill person could not support himself or his family. In those cases, the community often lent a hand financially. Medical treatment for mental illness did not exist (Grob, 1994, p. 6). This informal method of caring for the mentally ill could not last. In the late 17th century, as larger towns emerged, a new system had to be devised. Towns created ôalmshousesö as the first welfare institutions. Almshouses provided free lodging to those who could not care for themselvesùyoung, old, infirm, and the mentally ill. The first hospitals appeared in the mid-1700s, not so much to treat the sick but to care for society's castoffs (hospitals differed little from almshouses). The first mental hospital opened in 1769 in Virginia. Later called the Virginia Eastern Asylum, the facility treated only a handful of patients (just 36 in one four-year period). By the 1870s, the U.S. had 178 hospitals, a third of which were mental hospitals (Grob, 1994, pp. 17-21). By the 1800s, urbanization began to dramatically change America, altering its attitudes towards mental illness. At the same time, the work of an influential French doctor (Pinel) called for the treatment of mental illness by confining patient
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Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page)

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