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Pyro Eye · #1 (**permalink**) 11-25-2009

THE MAD HOUSE
PYRO EYE

“Part of being sane, is being a little bit crazy," - Janet Long

A psychiatric hospital, also known as an asylum, is a hospital specializing in the treatment of serious mental illness, usually for relatively long-term inpatients.

Psychiatric institutions vary widely in their goals and methods. Some hospitals may specialize only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients. Others may specialize in the temporary or permanent care of residents who as a result of a psychological disorder, require routine assistance, treatment or a specialized and controlled environment. Patients are often admitted on a voluntary basis, but involuntary commitment is practiced when an individual may pose a significant danger to themselves or others.

Ineffective treatments

These treatments provided a fruitful environment for the popularity of quick-fix solutions,[13] like the eugenic compulsory sterilization programs undertaken in over 30 U.S. states (and, later, in Germany), which allowed institutions to discharge patients while still claiming to be serving the public interest. These new treatments of mental illness – which is now seen as a "defect", and likely a hereditary one – were seen less as therapeutic for the individual patient than as preventative for the society as a whole.

From 1942 to 1947, conscientious objectors in the US assigned to psychiatric hospitals under Civilian Public Service exposed abuses throughout the psychiatric care system and were instrumental in reforms of the 1940s and 1950s. The CPS reformers were especially active at the Philadelphia State Hospital where four Quakers initiated The Attendant magazine as a way to communicate ideas and promote reform. This periodical later became the The Psychiatric Aide, a professional journal for mental health workers. On May 6, 1946, Life Magazine printed an exposé of the psychiatric system based on the reports of COs. Another effort of CPS, namely the Mental Hygiene Project, became the National Mental Health Foundation. Initially sceptical about the value of Civilian Public Service, Eleanor Roosevelt, impressed by the changes introduced by COs in the mental health system, became a sponsor of the National Mental Health Foundation and actively inspired other prominent citizens including Owen J. Roberts, Pearl Buck and Harry Emerson Fosdick to join her in advancing the organization's objectives of reform and humane treatment of patients.

Radical medicine

By the mid-1940s, treatment of the mentally ill took a new turn, with the advent of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and insulin shock therapy, and the use of frontal lobotomy. In modern times, insulin shock therapy and lobotomies are viewed as being almost as barbaric as the Bedlam "treatments", although the insulin shock therapy was still seen as the first options which produced any noticeable effect on their patients. ECT is still used in the West, but it is seen as a last resort for treatment of mood disorders, and is administered much more safely than in the past.[14] Elsewhere, particularly in India, use of ECT is reportedly increasing, as a cost-effective alternative to drug treatment. The effect of a shock on an overly excitable patient often allowed these patients to be discharged to their homes, which was seen by administrators (and often guardians) as a preferable solution to institutionalization. Lobotomies were performed in the hundreds from the 1930s to the 1950s, and were ultimately replaced with modern psychotropic drugs.

Drugs

By the mid-1950s, the first psychiatric medications became available, such as chlorpromazine, which revolutionized psychiatric care and provided new ways for many of the severely mentally ill to return to normal society. Newly developed antidepressants were used to treat cases of depression, and the introduction of muscle relaxants allowed ECT to be used in a modified form for the treatment of severe depression and a few other disorders. The use of psychosurgery was narrowed to a very small number of people for specific indications. New treatments led to reductions in the number of patients in mental hospitals.

Juvenile wards

Juvenile wards are sections of psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric wards set aside for children and/or adolescents with mental illness. However, there are a number of institutions specializing only in the treatment of juveniles, particularly when dealing with drug abuse, self mutilation, or eating disorders.

These usually consist of anyone aged under 10.

Long term care facilities

In the UK long-term care facilities are now being replaced with smaller secure units (some within the hospitals listed above). Modern buildings, modern security and being locally sited to help with reintegration into society once medication has stabilized the condition are often features of such units. An example of this is the Three Bridges Unit, in the grounds of Hanwell Asylum in West London and the John Munroe Hospital in Staffordshire. However these modern units have the goal of treatment and rehabilitation back into society within a short time-frame (two or three years) and not all forensic patients' treatment can meet this criterion, so the large hospitals mentioned above often retain this role.

Halfway houses

One type of institution for the mentally ill is a community-based halfway house. These facilities provide assisted living[17] for patients with mental illnesses for an extended period of time, and often aid in the transition to self-sufficiency. These institutions are considered to be one of the most important parts of a mental health system by many psychiatrists, although some localities lack sufficient funding.

Form of prison

In some countries the mental institution may be used for the incarceration of political prisoners, as a form of punishment

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Hello <Name Here>

Because of something that has unfortunately happened to you, you are now a registered patient of Saint Phillipa's Psychiatric Hospital. If that is to hard for you to remember, we are also known as PPH. Here you will be placed under careful management and intensive care for a small period of time. We will help you as much as we can, and we wish you the very best.

ThiSs Iz A LiE. RUN.

Regards,

Phillipa's Psychiatric Hospital

__________________________________________________ ____________

You are a patient. You are most certainly mental, but in your mind, you are physically and mentally perfect. However messed up you may be, you at least have enough common sense to know that this isn't usually how Psychiatric Wards treat their patients.

This place tries to torture their patients into sanity, while the cover up is a lie hiding behind money, media, and power.

You are a patient.

You are being tortured.

You want to get out.

__________________________________________________ ___________

My thread, my rules
Romance is encouraged
High-casual or advanced, up to you guys
This will require a fairly high standard of writing itself, and writing skills
You are a mental patient. Not some secret martial artist who can create a 16.5 shot gun out of a scrap of metal. Keep is realistic.
Have fun
Join in
And DO NOT drop out

Anyone up for it?