Dorothea DixPublic speaker, researcher, nurse
B. 1802 D. 1887 Testimony: In their Own WordsI proceed, Gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of Insane Persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cages, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience. |
Actions
- Completed a statewide investigation of care for the insane poor in Massachusetts
- Lobbied Congress and state legislatures to improve life for the mentally ill, especially for mentally ill people who were homeless or elderly and had dementia
- Wrote letters and editorials in support of laws to establish mental health facilities
- Surveyed multiple states, including New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Illinois, on their treatment of mentally ill people
- Created first mental health asylums, rather than putting mental health patients in jails or prison
- Believed that mental health issue were problems faced by educated whites, not minorities or black people
- Appointed as Superintendent of Army Nurses during the Civil War; often feuded with nurses trained by other people, feuded with doctors who didn't want female nurses, and demanded all volunteers be "plain-looking" and dress plainly
- Anti-Catholic feelings led her to distrust Catholic nuns who served as nurses
- Lobbied Congress and state legislatures to improve life for the mentally ill, especially for mentally ill people who were homeless or elderly and had dementia
- Wrote letters and editorials in support of laws to establish mental health facilities
- Surveyed multiple states, including New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Illinois, on their treatment of mentally ill people
- Created first mental health asylums, rather than putting mental health patients in jails or prison
- Believed that mental health issue were problems faced by educated whites, not minorities or black people
- Appointed as Superintendent of Army Nurses during the Civil War; often feuded with nurses trained by other people, feuded with doctors who didn't want female nurses, and demanded all volunteers be "plain-looking" and dress plainly
- Anti-Catholic feelings led her to distrust Catholic nuns who served as nurses
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