Hi everyone. I would get your attention about mental health hospitals. I think it is an important topic because its conditions matter in terms of human rights.
People go to hospitals and visit doctors when they think there is something wrong with their body, experience pain in internal organs, and some emergency situations such as car accidents, natural disasters. People have various treatments for types of illnesses and disease severity. Even though using the term physical hospital is awkward, there are several terms to express what a mental hospital is. Mental institution, mental health hospital, and psychiatric hospital terms are similar. They are usually concerned in the same way. Actually, they have mostly common functions and outcomes. Also, exchanging language and translation from English might cause meaning differences. The APA describes a mental institution as “A treatment-oriented facility in which patients with the severe psychological disorder are provided with supervised general care and therapy by trained psychologists and psychiatrists as well as auxiliary staff.” (APA). However, the APA explains, that a psychiatric hospital is “a public or private institution providing inpatient treatment to individuals with mental disorders. Also called the mental hospital.” (APA). According to the description, it can be understood that it is a hospital for inpatients with different long stays.
Thanks for writing this post on the nature of mental health facilities and how one needs to be aware of the language they use to refer to these places.
It is unfortunate, that historically there have been a lot of stigmas associated with people or patients that require these facilities to find a measure of mental equilibrium.
As you so rightly say, a regular hospital is used if one breaks a leg or requires surgery or a diagnosis of some disease or other, and there isn't as much of a stigma as there is for patients requiring mental health services.
It is interesting that both mental health hospitals and regular hospitals have gone through something of an evolution. Regular hospitals with a focus on healing the body were at one time places people went to die due to large infection rates, but thanks to the work of pioneers such as Florence Nightingale cleanliness soon started to reverse the death toll. A little-known fact about Florence Nightingale was that she was a brilliant statistician whose diagrams revolutionised medical care.
Mental Hospitals in turn were places for mentally ill patients to be sequestered, almost like a place where those with mental disorders could be quarantined. That, along with barbaric practices like lobotomies ensured progress was kept slow if not fully halted.
It is comforting to see the advances fields like psychology have made possible, and with the realization that those with mental illness are in fact human beings they ought to be treated as such. And if a full cure for the mind is not possible, then it is the role of practitioners to ensure that a person lives as full and happy a life as is possible.
Thanks again for this post, and for illustrating how language has changed and how we need to be careful with the terms we use. 😁
Unfortunately, there is alot of stigma associated with Mental institutions. In many cultures, it is still a taboo. When you talk about being in therapy or taking medications for mental health. Most people just assume you have gone mad.
In Urdu: we have a saying for mental illness:" Yeah to pagal hai". It means he/she is insane.
Thank you, for letting us know about language differences.