By Invitation
Putting the 'asylum' back into mental healthcare
In the treatment and care of people with severe mental illness, the asylum has undergone many changes over the centuries. Covid-19 too has left its mark.
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Since the Middle Ages, there were asylums which served the sole function of locking up people with severe mental illness. Among the oldest was Bethlem Royal Hospital, the first asylum for the mentally ill in England, founded in the 13th century.
The predominant treatment-if one could call it that - was based on the notion that "madness" was a disease of the physical body which could be cured by purging the individual of "melancholic humours" by inducing repeated bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea, and by bloodletting - often inadvertently killing the patients.