Maybe the name Dorothea Dix is not as popular as Washington, Lincoln and other heroes who helped changed America from the time it gained independence from Great Britain. But after reading an old book, dated 1961 entitled “History Of A Free People,” I came to know that Ms. Dorothea Dix is one of the great American icon that brought changes not only for the United States Of America but to all women and to the rest of the world.
Although the life story of Ms. Dorothea Dix was mentioned only in two pages, the book was succinct about the life of Ms Dix. As told, she was a school teacher and was born in Massachusett. But in 1841 Miss Dix visited all the jails and almshouses in her native state. She was appalled of what she saw; one of the most cruel abuses of human beings in the United States, as elsewhere, was the treatment of insane people as criminals. Insane persons are confined in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods and lashed into obedience.
Miss Dorothea Dix was extraordinary and determined about her new advocacy that on her own initiative, in 1842 she wrote a report and describing the condition she found, and presented it to the legislators asking for better treatment of the insane. Her report was accurate that Massachusetts passed a law establishing asylums where the insane were to be treated as sick rather than guilty. After her success at home, Miss Dix traveled throughout the United States visiting 800 jails and almshouses.
Largely as a result of her influence, twenty states followed Massachusetts in founding insane asylums. Later she traveled abroad, helping to promote better treatment of the insane in every major European country. A friendship with a Japanese diplomat resulted in the first insane asylums in Japan. When the war broke out, Ms. Dorothea Dix turned from her work with the insane and offered her services to the Federal government as Superintendent of women nurses.
The life of Ms. Dorothea Dix is full of bravery and heroism. Her unselfish and magnanimity personae brought her to the pedestal of respect and reverence. She was the embodiment of courage,dedication and the love for mankind which no one dared to thread. But the sad fact is that the legacy of Ms. Dix failed to be heeded by many countries around the world. One of them is the Philippines where cases of mental disorder among the citizens are getting higher. Latest statistic shows that too many insane persons are loitering in every street, road! Others are being kept in cages, naked and treated as animals by their immediate families. Government institutions that solely care for the insane are incapable of handling the rising cases of mental illness.
The problem of mental illness will grow if every government around the world does not take drastic action to really make a study on how to lessen if not treat the confounding issue of the insane. And as Ms. Dorothea Dix had advocated, let us treat the insane humanely.