Shifting Burdens: The Failures of the Deinstitutionalization Movement from the 1940s to the 1960s in American Society

Abstract

Shifting Burdens explores the process and features of mental patient deinstitutionalization as it occurred in America in the 1950s and 1960s. This paper examines the disillusionments American society had with mental institutions, such as faltering standards of care, staff failures, and inadequate treatment options. These issues resulted in the movement towards deinstitutionalization, resulting in the burden of care for displaced mental patients being shifted onto community homes and patients families. Shifting Burdens challenges the notion that deinstitutionalization at the time was a successful endeavour, as the question of care for mental patients continues to exist today.