Unit 9 Reading — Mental Health

One of the greatest challenges faced by mental health workers, in recent years, has been breaking down the stigma attached to mental illness. A stigma which didn't only affect the general public, but also patients and other healthcare professionals.

A patient's reluctance to admit to suffering from a mental illness, a mere 50 years ago, is hardly surprising when you consider the treatments that were available at that time such as electroconvulsive therapy in which the patient was strapped down and electrocuted - very much akin to a less deadly version of the electric chair. Going back slightly further to the 1940's and 50's, and the treatments got even more barbaric, the frontal lobotomy involved destroying the part of the brain which was thought to be responsible for the illness in question. These were commonly performed on patients suffering from schizophrenia, and while the delusions were often cured, the patient was left without full brain function. The lucky ones were just sent to an asylum to live, like a prisoner, out of sight and out of mind.