Dorthea Dix by Julie Geers https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix University of Nevada, Reno - SW 630 [7002] en-us 2017-09-22 02:03:22 UTC 2023-02-28 20:24:55 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Shakinghands.png TRY TO IMAGINE... juliegeers https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/189984670 Try to imagine, if you will, that you are suffering from depression and your family admitted you to a mental asylum for treatment.  You and your fellow “inmates” are forced to live in subhuman conditions and are treated quite inhumanely.  You feel lonely and neglected, as you have been stripped of your clothing and dignity.  You sleep in an unheated, foul-smelling cellar.  Quite often you and your inmates are “chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience…” (Warder, 2011).]]> 2017-09-22 02:55:37 UTC https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/189984670 CONTEXT & BACKGROUND juliegeers https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/189984840 When Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887) was twelve, she left her poor, Methodist family to live with her wealthy grandmother in Boston.  She became a part of a more liberal religion, called Brahmanism.  This change was pivotal for Dix.  “Both theology and class led people like Dix to express concern for the unfortunate” (Warder, 2011).  Dix became educated and she eventually became a teacher for girls and wrote a book, Moral Tales for Children.  She was also developing relationships with many of the elite men of Boston, who would later become her allies (Warder, 2011).  Eventually, Dix suffered first-hand from depression in the 1830s and lived in England for several years undergoing treatment (Warder, 2011).

When Dix returned to America, she soon became known as a social reformist and activist as she made a big impact on the profession of Social Work.  She became the voice for a myriad of “voiceless” people, who were living in subhuman conditions in mental institutions and asylums during the nineteenth century. Dix believed that individuals suffering from mental and emotional illnesses should not be housed in jails with felons.  They needed their own treatment (Warder, 2011). 
]]> 2017-09-22 02:57:19 UTC https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/189984840 DIX'S PIVOTAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS juliegeers https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/189986279 Dix faced many hurdles in her career, partly because the profession of social work did not exist (at least, not formally) and partly because she was a woman.  Dix’s solution was to take on a makeshift role as an investigative reporter.  Since women had little to no political voice at that point in U.S. history, Dix “relied [heavily] on powerful male allies to speak for her” (Warder, 2011).  Dix used her own, firsthand observations to sway the political minds of the male-dominant society of her time.  In 1843, she presented a petition to the Massachusetts State Legislature.  “In her petition, hers is the only voice… we see things through her eyes alone” (Warder, 2011).  Sharing her own, powerful observations was very advantageous for her case.  In fact, her direct observations were what indicted the wardens at the State Hospital for the Insane in Worcester (Warder, 2011).  She explained that the patients were being “abused, neglected, and subjected to abhorrent conditions and horrific methods of treatment.  The asylums were overcrowded and filthy, and that was only for those lucky enough to be put in a separate mental health institution.  Many mentally ill people were seen as criminals and housed in prisons” (Insane, 2014).]]> 2017-09-22 03:11:23 UTC https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/189986279 INFLUENCE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL WORK PROFESSION juliegeers https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/189986484 Dix was living proof that women had more to offer society than just being the moral caregivers and nurturers to young children and youth.  Dix “crusaded for hospitals to be founded for more humane treatment of our mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters suffering with brain illnesses” (Kneller, 2016).  Dix’s courageous efforts played a direct role in “the establishment of 110 psychiatric hospitals by 1880” (“Deinstitutionalization,” 2016).  Her personal experiences and empathetic character gave her the courageous qualities she needed to help change U.S. history.  

Today, the idea of deinstitutionalization allows patients to be under the good care of their families and communities.  They are given a sense of hope that they, too, can still be productive members of society.  The amount of people residing in mental institutions is still on the decline.  In fact, “the number of people institutionalized declined from 560,000 in 1955 to 125,000 in 1981” (DuBois & Miley, 2014, p. 337).
]]> 2017-09-22 03:13:14 UTC https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/189986484 juliegeers https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/190129235 Dorothea Dix Hospital in 2006 (Raleigh, NC)]]> 2017-09-22 13:48:29 UTC https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/190129235 juliegeers https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/190130264 Dorothea Dix Hospital in 1872]]> 2017-09-22 13:50:34 UTC https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/190130264 juliegeers https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/190131841 References
(n.d.). [Image of photograph]. Washington D.C., U.S.A.; Library of Congress. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedi/11750
Buckner, T. (Photographer). (2006). Entrance to Dorothea Dix Hospital. [Image of photograph]. Raleigh, North Carolina; UNC Libraries /
     North Carolina Collection. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/uploads/2009/02/186053542_83573fdb6a_b.jpg
Deinstitutionalization Still Haunts Us Sixty Years Later. (2016, July). Officer.com. Retrieved from
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DuBois, B., & Miley, K. (2014). Social work: An empowering profession (8th ed.).  Boston, Mass: Allyn & Bacon.
Insane asylum reform (1830s-1850s). (2014, November 4). TackkEdu. Retrieved from https://tackk.com/8gc08j
Kneller, S. (2016, June 13). Society must do more for the seriously mentally ill. The Washington Post. Retrieved from ProQuest
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McKown, H. (Artist). (1872). Lunatic asylum. [Illustration]. Raleigh, North Carolina; UNC Libraries / North Carolina Collection. Retrieved
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Walbert, D. (Ed.). (2009). North Carolina: A digital history (p. 11.7). Raleigh, NC: Learn NC.  Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org
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Warder, G. (2011). Miss Dorothea Dix (1802 – 1887): Teacher, nurse, social reformer and advocate for the mentally ill.  Social Welfare
     History Project. Retrieved from http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/people/dix-dorthea-lynde/
]]> 2017-09-22 13:53:17 UTC https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/190131841 juliegeers https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/190139861 2017-09-22 14:08:12 UTC https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/190139861 juliegeers https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/190296658 2017-09-22 20:40:53 UTC https://padlet.com/juliegeers/DortheaDix/wish/190296658