Module 5 Bedlam Redux Blog Post Directions / Prompt

Dorothea Dix was VERY successful in her advocacy for people with mental illness. Asylums were built in every state, originally to support the humane care of people with mental illness. These institutions grew exponentially over time, in part due to Dix's advocacy, from the 1850s into the 1960s.  In the late 1940s and early 1950s, journalists started exposing, once again, the horrible conditions that existed in institutions (A Dorothea Dix Deja Vous, 100 years later)  Some of these institutions were also segregated by race, particularly in the South (as were their cemeteries).

Choose one of these infamous institutions in another state. Research and briefly summarize it’s history, using the prompts in this template below. CREATE A NEW POST (not just a reply). In the upper right of this blog screen it has a link "new post." That is where you will create your post. In the Title box, list the name the institution and State is was located in. (for example, Pineland - Maine). Then just type up the answers to the prompts and post / publish.

When was this "asylum" opened, and what did it look like?
What was it's original intent?
Who were the patients there?
What was the patients' experience like in that institution, and did that change over the course of the institution's history?
How did the institution, its services, and patients change over time? 
How many people lived and worked and died there? 
Were bad conditions ever exposed to the public? How?

Comment on at least 2 of your classmates' posts / research. Please do this early in the week so that other students will have time to read what you post.