Specific Purpose: To inform my audience how treatment of mental illness in America has changed. Central Idea: Treatment of mental illness in America from past, to present. INTRODUCTION I What is Mental Illness? Mental illnesses are disorders of the brain that disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, moods, and ability to relate to others-and if severe interferes with all aspects of daily living. A. The care and support of people with mental illness affects everyone in society.1.The National Mental Health Association reports that 40 million adult Americans are affected by mental disorders2. 6.6 million Americans are disabled by severe mental illness. The cost of metal health care is over $150 billion a year.B.Today I am speaking about how the treatment of Mental Illness has changed in America 1. I have worked in the mental health field sense I was 16 years old.2. I have seen first had the effects of past treatments of mental illness working in an immediate care facility for mentally retarded adults.3. Unfortunately not much was known about the cause or treatment of mental illness until very recently in our history. The history of mental illness can seen in 3 separate stages: the old system of State hospitals, the Invention of Thorazine and other anti-psychotics, and community integration, the current system for the mentally ill. (TRANSITION) Hopefully I can explain when and why these changes occurred today, lets begin with the State Institution BODYIState mental Institutions open in 1800’s (Providing care for insane usually left to prisons +Families before this time) A.Mental illness believed to stem from brain injury, or “moral causes”. 1.Prevailing theories of insanity thought that social, political, and economic freedoms were causing insanity- severely limiting freedom outside the asylum would cure mentally ill patients.2.Believed mentally ill could be coaxed...
