ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1950s there has been a dramatic change in the care of mental patients due to the widespread use of psychotropic drugs. Before this, persons with serious mental disorders were committed to institutions, where they stayed until their doctors agreed they could rejoin society. Drugs that helped patients control their symptoms combined with the deinstitutionalization movement’s goals to transfer most mental patients out of institutions and place them for treatment in the community. Despite numerous problems, the inmate population of mental hospitals was significantly reduced, and the majority of mentally disordered people today are treated on an outpatient basis. Others are hospitalized. This chapter will discuss the mental hospital inpatient experience before examining prison mental patients and community-based patienthood.
