The driving forces behind deinstitutionalization in psychiatry was access to better medication, high costs of psychiatric hospitals, and public concerns about the practices in psychiatric hospitals
Date created: 2022-09-16
While the first half of the 1900s meant growth of psychiatric hospitals in Western countries, there was a 80-90% reduction between the mid 1950s and the 1990s.
- Medications made it possible for people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to live reasonably well in community settings
- High costs of psychiatric hospitals became a concern in the later half of the 1900s
- The human rights movement in 1950s and 1960s meant increasing concern. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest