WORTH: 3% of semester grade
CAN THIS BE TURNED IN LATE?: NO
BE
SURE TO FOLLOW THE FILE-NAMING CONVENTIONS FOR THIS COURSE
(5% penalty if you do not).
All files should be saved on your computer
as: your last name, followed by an underscore ("_"),
followed by the first two letters of your first name, followed
by an underscore ("_"), followed
by the assignment number. So if a student named Saddam Hussein
were to submit assignment number 17, the file name would
be:
hussein_sa_16.doc
THIS
IS ASSIGNMENT 17
Question 1, 2, and 3 are worth 10 pts; question 5 is worth 20 pts and question 4 is worth 50 pts.
1) The author argues that World War II exposed both the extent of mental illness in America and the deplorable conditions of state mental hospitals. Explain how the war brought about both realizations. (10 pts)
2) How and why did the Life Magazine article lead to the first intervention by the Federal government in mental health treatment? (10 pts)
3) How did popular culture lead the Interagency Committee on Mental Health to dismss any real role for state mental hospitals? (10 pts)
4) As the author notes, refusing to give a role to state mental hospitals meant the Committee had limited knowledge of what role those institutions played. Despite this lack of knowledge, the Committee concluded to push for the release patients of those institutions ("deinstutionalization") and in doing so made at least three assumptions: (1) the patients could return to their families or live on their own, (2) would take their medications freely, and (3) have a means of financial support.
Given what the Committee did not (as spelled out by the author) know about the state mental institutions, what might happen if most patients of those institutions were released on the three assumptions above and WHY? (50 pts)
5) As explained by the author, advocates of community health centers (who were also those who opposed state mental institutions) believed that improving the social environment could prevent mental illness and that early intervention in small problems could prevent larger problems later. There was, however, only one study that tested this theory at the time. Two questions: (A) given what was known in 1963, was the Committee's vision supported by the available science? (B) what did follow-up studies in the 1970s suggest about the theory?
(20 pts)