The Willard Asylum, and provision for the insane.

Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Willard Asylum, and provision for the insane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    to prove that the treatment of acute insanity should take precedence of all other considerations ; for thus, and thus only, can the State be relieved of the burden of chronicity. By such provision, instead of the insane life-long consume]', an affliction to himself, his friends, and society, a producing constituent is restored to the body politic, a comforter and supporter to his family, and an active citizen or christian to the sphere of his former usefulness. Thus we strike at the root of the evil in all its relations, social, sanitary and financial. An inquiry into the conditions essential to the attain- ment of a result so desirable suggests the following con- siderations : The usefulness of an asylum or hospital for the in- sane is in a great degree dependent upon its proximity to those who require its care. The greater its facility of access, the less delay there is in placing patients under treatment. The community learn to appreciate the character and merits of an institution in their midst, and are quick to avail themselves of its advantages; and thus the hospital becomes a curative centre for the region around it.* On the other hand, many cases of insanity, favorable at the outset, lapse into chronicity from the distrust of friends in placing a relative in a distant asylum, of the management of which they know nothing, or against which vague rumor may have prejudiced their minds, or from dread of the expense, hardship and ex- posure attending a long journey, or from fear of being unable to reach the object of their solicitude in the day of sickness, or be present at the hour of his death. *We have the authority of Dr. Jarvis for stating that this result has uniformly followed upon the establishment of new asylums in the State of Massachusetts.