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Dorothea Dix was know as the social reformer for the rights for the Mentally ill. She is known as social reformer whose devotion to the welfare of the mentally ill led to widespread international reforms. From this, Dorothea worked towards a different societal outlook towards people who were affected by Mental illness.

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Dorothea Dix was born in Dorothea Dix in 1802 to Joseph and Mary Dix. Joseph's parents were wealthy and did not approve of the marriage. This would affect Dorothea on a personal level. Due to Joseph;'s family not approving and Joseph being a 'religious fanatic', Dorothea was left without love and left with many responsibilities to raising her siblings. Her father was prone to Depression and alcoholism, also. Dorothea was predicted to be affected by Depression and other health issues early on in her life.

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Her Development to the Social Work Profession

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Her Development to the Social Work Profession

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-Her work focused on fighting for populations that lack voice.
-She showed the importance of persistence in policy advocacy.
-She played a role in women having an influence in politcis and policy reform.
-She played a role in how this field deals with ethical reasoning of what is right or wrong.
-She proved that social welfare should be on the federal level, not just local levels.
-She helped bring to light the possiblitly of rehabilitation and treatemtns for the mentally ill.

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Dorothea played a role in showing how social reform can be a life long commitment.  Her efforts on behalf of the mentally ill and prisoners helped create more than 30 new institutions across the United States and in Europe. Her education on the population changed people’s perceptions of these populations.

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From her tireless research, activism, and policy reform, Dix wanted federal assistance with the treatment of the mentally ill. She wanted the federal government to help fund mental health facilities in the states with proceeds from federal land sales. She persuaded Congress to approve but it was unfortunately vetoed by President Franklin Pierce, who felt it was not the job of the federal government for 'public charity'.

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The Start of the Reform Movement for the Mentally Ill 

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The Start of the Reform Movement for the Mentally Ill 

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Dix visited every public and private facility she could access, documenting the conditions she found with unflinching honesty. She educated the general public on how unfair the treatment was towards the mentally ill.From her research, she created to the Massachusetts legislature asking for reform and expansion for the state mental hospitals. She not only concentrated on the local and national well-being of the mentally ill, but international well-being.

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While on a trip to Europe to recover from her mental breakdown, she met prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, and Samuel Tuke, founder of the York Retreat for the mentally ill. She began to teach Sunday school at East Cambridge Jail, a women’s prison. There she began to see the treatment to the mentally ill population. She witnessed all the mistreatment and neglect bestowed upon people with mental illnesses. During that time, they were put in jails or poor houses. She saw how this affected the treatment they received and how it was an issue. This lead to her devotion to reform the treatment of the mentally ill.

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Dorothea supported the Union and worked for the Army hospital. She oversaw the vast nursing staff that the war would require. As superintendent of women nurses, she was the first woman to serve in such a high capacity in a federally appointed role.

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By 1836, her commitment to teaching and demanding workload seemed to have taken its toll. She suffered from a mental break down and was affected by Depression. These struggles predicted to make her feel more compassion towards being affected by mental illnesses.

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Dorothea spent a vast amount of time with her grandmother who was wealthy and held innovative company. These meetings would influence Dorothea's ideas, activism, and policy reform later on her life. Her father, Joseph taught her how to read young, fueling her passion of knowledge. She began to teach at age 14. She founded Dix Mansion, a school for girls. It allowed free schooling for all girls. She devoted much to teaching these young women. Dix published, Conversations on Common Things. This book was written to empower women to seek the same education as men. It was a radical idea back when it was published in 1924.

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Quick Facts

Name

Dorothea Dix

Birth Date

April 4, 1802

Death Date

July 17, 1887

Place of Birth

Hampden, Maine

Place of Death

Trenton, New Jersey

AKA

Dorothea Dix

Full Name

Dorothea Lynde Dix

Dorothea Dix was an educator and social reformer whose devotion to the welfare of the mentally ill led to widespread international reforms.

Synopsis

Born in Hampden, Maine, in 1802, Dorothea Dix was a social reformer whose devotion to the welfare of the mentally ill led to widespread international reforms. After seeing horrific conditions in a Massachusetts prison, she spent the next 40 years lobbying U.S. and Canadian legislators to establish state hospitals for the mentally ill. Her efforts directly affected the building of 32 institutions in the United States.

Early Life

Dorothea Lynde Dix was born on April 4, 1802, in Hampden, Maine. She was the eldest of three children, and her father, Joseph Dix, was a religious fanatic and distributor of religious tracts who made Dorothea stitch and paste the tracts together, a chore she hated.

At age 12, Dix left home to live with her grandmother in Boston, and then an aunt in Worcester, Massachusetts. She began teaching school at age 14. In 1819, she returned to Boston and founded the Dix Mansion, a school for girls, along with a charity school that poor girls could attend for free. She began writing textbooks, with her most famous, Conversations on Common Things, published in 1824.

Champion of the Mentally Ill

The course of Dix's life changed in 1841, when she began teaching Sunday school at the East Cambridge Jail, a women's prison. She discovered the appalling treatment of the prisoners, particularly those with mental illnesses, whose living quarters had no heat. She immediately went to court and secured an order to provide heat for the prisoners, along with other improvements.

She began traveling around the state to research the conditions in prisons and poorhouses, and ultimately crafted a document that was presented to the Massachusetts legislature, which increased the budget to expand the State Mental Hospital at Worcester. But Dix wasn't content with reforms in Massachusetts. She toured the country documenting the conditions and treatment of patients, campaigning to establish humane asylums for the mentally ill and founding or adding additions to hospitals in Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Dix also lobbied at the federal level, and in 1848 she asked Congress to grant more than 12 million acres of land as a public endowment to be used for the benefit of the mentally ill as well as the blind and deaf. Both houses of Congress approved the bill, but in 1854 it was vetoed by President Franklin Pierce.

Discouraged by the setback, Dix went to Europe. She discovered enormous disparity between public and private hospitals, and great differences among countries. She recommended reforms in many countries, and, most significant, met with Pope Pius IX, who personally ordered construction of a new hospital for the mentally ill after hearing her report.

The Civil War

Dix returned to the United States in 1856. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, she volunteered her services and was named superintendent of nurses. She was responsible for setting up field hospitals and first-aid stations, recruiting nurses, managing supplies and setting up training programs. Although she was efficient and focused, many found her rigid, without the social skills that were necessary to navigate the military's bureaucracy.

After the war, she briefly returned to her work on behalf of the mentally ill. She contracted malaria in 1870 and was forced to abandon aggressive traveling, although she continued to write, lobbying for her causes. She took up residence at the hospital she had founded 40 years earlier in Trenton, New Jersey, and died there on July 17, 1887.

Personal Life

Though Dix had many admirers over her lifetime, and was briefly engaged to her second cousin, Edward Bangs, she never married.

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Name Dorothea Dix Birth Date April 4, 1802 Death Date July 17, 1887 Place of Birth Hampden, Maine Place of Death Trenton, New Jersey AKA Dorothea Dix Full Name Dorothea Lynde Dix Dorothea Dix was an educator and social reformer whose devotion to the welfare of the mentally ill led to widespread international reforms. Born in Hampden, Maine, in 1802, Dorothea Dix was a social reformer whose devotion to the welfare of the mentally ill led to widespread international reforms. After seeing horrific conditions in a Massachusetts prison, she spent the next 40 years lobbying U.S.