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[[File:Francisco Goya - Casa de locos.jpg|thumb|[[Francisco de Goya]] (1746-1828), ''Casa de Locos'' (House of Fools) shows how fools were treated before specialized treatment was avaiable.]]

[[File:Francisco Goya - Casa de locos.jpg|thumb|[[Francisco de Goya]] (1746-1828), ''Casa de Locos'' (House of Fools) shows how fools were treated before specialized treatment was available.]]

[[Image:Narrenturm Vienna June 2006 577.jpg|thumb|The ''Narrenturm'' in [[Vienna]] (translates to fools' tower) was the first specialised building to lodge mentally ill patients. It was built in 1784. It is a [[museum]] of medical history today.]]

[[Image:Narrenturm Vienna June 2006 577.jpg|thumb|The ''Narrenturm'' in [[Vienna]] (translates to fools' tower) was the first specialised building to lodge mentally ill patients. It was built in 1784. It is a [[museum]] of medical history today.]]

A '''psychiatric hospital''' is a place where [[mental illness|mentally ill]] people are kept, sometimes until [[Medical doctor|doctors]] are ready to place them into [[halfway house]]s, where they are slowly released into [[society]]. Group homes are open to people when they are released from a psychiatric hospital.

A '''psychiatric hospital''' is a place where [[mental illness|mentally ill]] people are kept so they can be treated.

Usually people choose to be in a psychiatric hospital. Sometimes psychiatrists decide to put people in hospitals who do not want to be there, because they think the people are dangerous to themselves or other people.

Psychiatric hospitals used to be called lunatic asylums.

 

Psychiatric hospitals used to be called lunatic asylums. Earlier asylums like the old Bethlem Royal Hospital in London (nicknamed "Bedlam") were like [[prison]]s. Patients received no treatment and were often imprisoned and chained. In the 19th century, new asylums were built. These were designed to be pleasant places with gardens and airy rooms, and later became known as psychiatric hospitals. Although they no longer looked like prisons, patients still had little freedom or hope of leaving. The term '''institutionalisation''' means when someone has lived in a hospital (or some other place like a prison) for so long that they cannot cope with living outside of it.

 

In the middle of the 20th century, new drugs were invented that made it easier to treat mental illness. Governments began to look for ways to care for patients outside of hospitals. They believed it would lead to better care for patients and save money. This is known as '''deinstitutionalisation'''. Since the 1970s, many countries have closed large numbers of psychiatric hospitals. Mentally ill patients are now also cared for in local [[hospital]]s, small clinics and in their own homes.

{{multistub|med|science}}

{{multistub|med|science}}

[[Category:psychiatry]]

 

[[Category:Psychiatry]]

[[Category:Hospitals]]

[[Category:Hospitals]]