The Eclipse of the State Mental Hospital: Policy, Stigma, and Organization

By George W. Dowdall

Book Overview

Examines the origins, recent history, and future of state hospitals.

State hospitals still account for the majority of the state dollars spent on mental health care across the nation. Why do state hospitals persist and expand despite public scandal and professional disapproval? What role does the state mental hospital play in the current system of care for the seriously mentally ill? What role should it play, and at what cost? Dowdall explores recent efforts, successful and unsuccessful, to meet the increasingly elaborate standards imposed from without on the contemporary state mental hospital, and the impact of these efforts on the quality of care provided to its patients.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791428966
• ISBN13: 9780791428962
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher