History of Mental Health in America

An era of "moral treatment" was introduced from Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century, representing the first of the reform movements in mental health services in the United States (U of T Library). The first reformers, including Dorothea Dix and Horace Mann imported the idea that mental illness could be treated by moving the individual to an asylum to receive a mix of somatic and psychosocial treatments in a controlled environment characterized by "moral" sensibilities (Smith). The term "moral" had a connotation different from that of today. It meant the return of the individual to…