CELEBRATING A CHAMPION FOR THE MENTALLY ILL: DOROTHEA LYNDE DIX

CELEBRATING A CHAMPION FOR THE MENTALLY ILL: DOROTHEA LYNDE DIX

During the 19th century, mental health disorders were not recognized as treatable conditions. They were perceived as a sign of madness, warranting imprisonment in merciless conditions. One woman set out to change such perceptions: Dorothea Lynde Dix.
Born in Maine in 1802, Dix was instrumental in the establishment of humane mental healthcare services in the United States.

Dix – a teacher and nurse during the American Civil War – tirelessly campaigned for the fair treatment of patients with mental health disorders, after being appalled by the conditions in which they were confined.

“I proceed, Gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of Insane Persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cages, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience,” wrote Dix in a Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1843.

In the years that followed, Dix traveled to hundreds of prisons and workhouses across the U.S., documenting the inhumane treatment that people with mental illness received and reporting her findings to state legislatures.

Her work not only resulted in the establishment of 32 mental health hospitals in a wealth of U.S. states, but it also helped to change people’s perceptions of mental illness.

“Through her work, she shed light on the abuse and neglect of those with mental illness, which helped change perceptions and policy approaches of state, national, and international leaders to establish more humane treatment approaches,” Paolo del Vecchio, director of the Center for Mental Health Services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, told Medical News Today.