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Who were the major reformers and what motivated them to become involved?

 * Jane Addams- It was during Jane's second trip to Europe when she decided she wanted to open a Settlement House in an underprivileged area of Chicago. In 1889, she and her good friend Ellen G. Starr found a home that they moved in to. Their purpose of opening this house was to "provide a center for higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago." The two women prepared speeches about the needs of the neighborhood, raised money, looked after children, nursed the sick, listened to the stories of those who were having issues and even convinced young women of wealthier families to donate their time. Jane and Ellen named their house the Hull House and by its second year being open, it housed about two thousand people every week. Kindergarten classes were held in the morning for young children, there were clubs in the after noon for older children and at night there were school classes for adults. It was because of the Hull House that caused Jane's reputation to grow and during later years, she was given more responsibilities within the communities. **


 * Dorothea Dix- It was not until later in Dorothea's life that she became involved with helping the mentally ill. While in England for five years, she learned of how people with a mental illness were being poorly treated. In 1841, while teaching Sunday School at the East Cambridge jail she saw firsthand that many of the inmates actually had a mental illness and suffered from abuse and neglect. Appalled by these conditions, she took on a career similar to what a modern day early investigative reporter might do. Changing how the mentally ill were treated became her passion in life. In January of 1843, Dix presented a petition to the state legislature. The goal of this petition was to secure funding to increase the size of the state hospital for the mentally ill. This petition also showed how irresponsible the jail wardens and the almshouse keepers were. The extremes that Dix went through were very out of the norm for women of that time. She was given an opportunity that was very rare for a woman in her generation. **


 * Horace Mann- Horace Mann is often called the Father of the Common School. He began his career ad a lawyer and a legislator and in 1837 was elected secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Mann used his position to create major educational changes. His goal was to ensure that every child could receive a basic education funded by local taxes. Horace Mann's influence spread beyond Massachusetts to surrounding states. One of his biggest beliefs was that in order for a state to have political stability and peace among all of its people, a basic knowledge of reading, writing and of common public ideas was needed. He also believed that public schooling was the basis to "good citizenship, democratic participation and social well-being." Horace Mann's accomplishments lead to the development of teacher training and the attempts to professionalize teaching. **

** How did reformers' goals match the reactions of society or create opposition? **

 * - During the Haymarket Riots, Jane Addams supported the workers. This caused her to be attacked and for the donor support of the Hull House to drop drastically. **


 * - Local newspapers questioned Dorothea Dix's accounts on the abuse toward the mentally ill. **

** How have social reforms impacted the United States today? **

 * Asylums- The ways of treating mental illness has changed drastically over the years. In colonial times, people believed that it was necessary for a mentally ill person to undergo "cathartic medical treatment." This meant to find the problem in one's life and to get rid of it. To do this, they would force the person to vomit, or they would use the "bleeding practice." The bleeding practice consisted of draining the "bad blood" from the individual. This usually lead to death or to need lifelong care. They also would submerge patients into ice baths until they became unconscious or even sent a massive shock to the brain. Around the 19th century, Europeans introduced "moral management." They believed that the environment played an important role in treating the mentally ill. Creating a more "comforting" environment was believed to be better. Beds, pictures and decorations replaced the shackles and chains of a cement cell. Phrenology and animal magnetism were also introduced. Phrenology is the study of the shape of the brain to explain illness and to help come up with a diagnosis. Animal magnetism are the benefits of hypnosis and relaxation. The problem with making the patients feel so comfortable was that they were becoming uncontrollable due to the lack of restraints. there became a concern with how they would occupy their time. Work programs and organized activities were created so the transition between hospital life and the real world wasn't so overwhelming. During the Civil War, soldiers with emotional and mental trauma from the war were sent to asylums.The public showed a lot of interest in their care and treatment but despite that, the institutions were forced to use their old ways of treatment. It was then that shock therapy and opium was introduced. In the late 1800s, the outside view of an asylum looked good, but in the inside the conditions were still harsh. An asylum building had two wings that branched out from a central building. One could only enter and exit from the center of the building. The "least disturbed" patients were placed closer to the center of the building to encourage them to interact with the staff. As their conditions worsened, they were moved closer to the back of the building. Since the idea of the asylums sounded so nice, it was common for homeless people to live there during the poor weather. Elderly were often emitter to an asylum because their families could not get the necessary resources or find the time to deal with them appropriately. It was because of reasons like these that over crowding became and issue. There was no established rules for accepting or rejecting patients. All in all, asylums became a place for people who were unwanted in society to go. The overcrowding lead to old procedures and medical treatment to be used again. The restraints, ice water baths and shock therapy returned. Patients were also forced to sleep in wooden cribs that were stacked high. In the 1930s the lobotomy was introduced. A lobotomy was a surgery where the front of the brain was removed from the back of the brain. The results were hoped to be that the patients forgot their depressing feelings and problems. From this, a trans-orbital lobotomy was introduced. This was a lobotomy that was performed quickly and required limited after care. Even with the lobotomies, electroshock therapy was still the most common treatment. By the mid 1900s mental health treatment was at its worst. It was during this time that psychotropic medication was invented. In 1954 Thorazine was introduced and this lead to a population drop at the institutions. In the 1960s there was an emphasis on the human rights of the mentally ill. Treatments were now focused to help the patient and they were proven to be more effective than the previous "group cure-alls." It was now clear that a good amount of the patients in the asylums could function in society as long as they had the proper care. It was then that 24 hour hospital care and outpatient care, day and night hospitalization, diagnostic services and more extensive training and research were introduced. In 1964 there was a mental health bill that caused an increase in insurance coverage for the mentally ill and in 1966 Medicare and Medicaid was introduced. There were national movements that helped reduce the number of state mental heath hospitals but helped the growth in private hospitals that had wings for psychiatric care and community health centers. In 1972 the Federal Court ruled that patients working in the hospitals could no longer work without being payed. Most institutions didn't have enough money to pay for the patients, so the cost for the housing increased and the patients became bored and felt that they did not have a purpose anymore. As 3/4 of the population was released from the hospitals, the homeless population soared with the mentally ill making up 1/3 of the population. **


 * Prisons- During this time period, prisoners spent most of their time in their cells. They slept and ate there and were only allowed out once a day to exercise or to go to the washroom. Upon arrival, prisoners were weighed and measured, tested in reading and writing, given a bath and given their prison clothing. Each cell had a bed, blanket, sheets, pillows, towel, comb, spoon and salt cup. There was also a toilet and a copy of the prison rules. It was then felt that prison life had become too easy. It was then that wooden beds and wooden pillows were given to make life less comfortable. The prisoners had to sleep on these for their first 30 days. They were given milk from a "passing milk cart" and in the winter, they had to make do with small amounts of water. Men, women and children were all thrown together. At some points, men would be locked alone which would lead to them committing suicide or to having a mental breakdown. Francis Lieber and Samuel Gridley Howe had the goals of giving the prisons libraries, basic bible readings, they wanted to reduce the whippings and beatings and they wanted to separate the women, children and the sick. Even though the prisoners were not allowed to communicate, in 1835, it was said that America had the best prisons in the world. Within America there were two systems that were followed in the jails. The Eastern State System consisted of "solitary confinement, working alone in cells, exercising in individual yards, and cruel isolation of prisoners." The Auburn System only consisted of working together in silence and sleeping in individual cells. Today, through society and media, it is obvious that some conditions have changed within the jails. They are given an adequate amount of food to eat, they are not beaten and the men, women and children are all in separate facilities. **

**Settlement Houses-** **Two of the most famous settlement houses were the Hull house and the Henry House. The Hull house was an all purpose community center. It was set up by volunteers who wanted to do something to help improve life for people living in the poor and more populated areas of cities. In the Hull House there were kindergartens for immigrant children which gave them a chance to learn about their culture. It also gave immigrant adults a place to meet and visit with others and to bathe and see health professionals. The focus of the Henry House was to have the new healthcare available to those who wouldn't receive it otherwise. The poor living conditions of immigrants caused the house's focus to shift to improving city services, creating parks for children and educating immigrants on sanitation issues. African American women who supported the Henry House had a focus on similar issues of white women, but also had to deal with the problems of racism, segregation and discrimination. They too educated other African Americans about the sanitation issues. To improve their neighborhoods, they** **pressed for garbage clean up, sewers and street lighting.**


 * Education in Mass- Horace Mann fought to bring education under government control. He believed that "education could end the domination of capital and labor." He fought for "mandatory student attendance,increased teacher preparation, and professionalized teaching." It is because of Mann that today we have our modern public school systems. **

- nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html - biography.com/people/dorothea-dix-9275710 - disablilitymuseum.org/dhm/edu/essay.html?id=35 - pbs.org/onlyteach/horace/html - inverarayjail.co.uk/the-jail-story/life-in-jail.aspx -ushistory.org/us/26d.asp -prezi.com/mrx4pvr3czzz/1800s-mentally-illprison.reform -poorhosuestory.com/history.htm -pollutionissues.com/re-sy/settlement-house-movement.html -herndonapush.wikispaces.com/education+reform+1800-1860+lyceum+movement
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