Then-1960'sKen Kesey wrote the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest after serving as a night attendant in a psychiatric ward in the late fifties-early sixties. He got the inspiration from talking to mental patients under the heavy influence of drugs. He did not believe these patients to be insane, but rather to be ostricized by society unfairly. Conditions in these wards were quite different than they are now. In the 60's, the community health movement occured. This pushed heavy drugs and the exciting idea that mentally disturbed patients could be "cured". There was a peak of around 150,000 patients in the mid-fifties. These patients were often condemned and forgotten, left to sit in a cramped hospital for years.
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Now- Present DayPsychiatric wards now house only 30,000 patients, a large decrease from the fifties. Governments are in favor of integrating these patients into the community instead of isolating them in a hospital. Although the conditions are thought to be much better now than they were just forty years ago, there is still much controversy surrounding mental hospitals. There are scandalous reports of sexual abuse in wards and some Georgian hospitals were shut down recently due to failure to abide to regulation. In addition, suicide rates in some hospitals are alarmingly high. There have been many efforts to improve quality of life for the patients including the ability to refuse treatment, a decreased and more humane use of electric shock therapy, and the ability to pay with insurance.
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