In Nellie Bly’s, Ten Days in a Mad-house, Bly admits herself into an all women’s lunatic asylum. During her ten days spent in the asylum, she discusses all the horrible things she witnessed from the moment she walked in, to her very last day there. During examinations she saw women being verbally abused and questioned until they themselves started to believe they were crazy. When reading texts that have historical backgrounds it is important to know the factual truth behind the stories in order to make connections.  

In the article, “A Clinical Alternative to the Public Health Approach to Mental Illness: a forgotten social experiment”, J.C. Burnham describes ways mistreatment among patients at the Topeka State Hospital were brought to the public’s attention in the mid 1960’s. The psychiatric community became aware of the issues that were arising quickly and wanted that awareness to spread to a larger audience. The community that was involved with the mentally ill knew before long; the government would soon intervene, leaving thousands of mentally ill patients with no place to go. The places available for the mentally ill to reside included, terrible living conditions, "untrained, overworked, underpaid’ staff, and undesirable living conditions. Investigations became active after reports of neglect and underfunding were called to the attention of Karl Menninger, a member of the investigation committee. Menninger and his fellow administrator, Irving Sheffel, went into the hospitals to see just how awful the living arrangements were. Irving described his experience as follows, "my first impressions were those of chaos, darkness, deprivation, and prison-like incarceration". After their visit inside the hospital, administrators, as well as state officials, were brought in and as a team collaborated rules and regulations. These regulations included a state tax that would support the state hospital. Menninger’s attempt to keep the hospitals a stable healthy living environment was not easy, however; it proved to be successful. The results consisted of improved treatment of patients, trained workers, and a much better patient to caregiver ratio. This article relates to the reading because it provides 

This journal article is significant towards the reading because the main purpose of the article is to expose the mistreatment of mentally ill patients at the Topeka State Hospital. “Ten Days in a Mad-House”, was written by Nellie Bly, a journalist who admitted herself into an all women’s lunatic asylum to expose the wrongful treatment of patients in that particular facility. The article and the reading relate in many ways, such as; they both discuss the awful way patients were treated, the conditions they were forced to live in, and the terrible staff that was hired to take care of them and both the article and the reading were written as a result of the investigations of these actions. This research allows me to argue that the mistreatment of the mentally ill was a very common accurance in the 1900’s, and for a while, many people were unware that these activities were taking place. The research did not necessarily change my perspective on the story, however; it did make me realize that this type of thing was a lot more common than in just one “school” for the mentally ill, it happened in almost all of them. It is important to know the cultural or historical background of this topic because when writing my essay; I can use facts to further prove my argument rather than using my own personal opinion. 

In the article, “Shared Decision Making to Improve Care and Reduce Costs”, authors, Emily Lee and Ezekiel Emanuel, discuss the benefits of patient decision aids. In patient decision aid the patient, as well as the caretaker, are educated on what type of treatment they are receiving. This approach increases the value of care depending on the needs of the patient. This idea would be effective if it were actually enforced today and because this is not enforced in facilities the care patients receive does not always align with their needs. This concept of patient decision aids could also lower the costs of caregiving. It would allow the caregivers to treat the problems they are dealing with, quicker and easier, therefore, eliminating useless spending. 

This journal article is significant towards the reading because the main purpose of the article is to discuss the benefits of a more personal interaction with the patients. In “Ten Days in a Mad-House”, one of the main concerns was how disconnected the staff was from the patients, there was no personal, sincere, connections when it came to the relationship between the mentally ill patients and the heartless staff.  This research allows me to argue that relating to a patient on a more personal level will allow the caretaker to be more effective as far as treatment goes because the patient will feel safe towards that caretaker. However; if the caretaker is rude and/or abusive towards the patient, the patient is less likely to gain anything from the treatment method. The research changes my prospective of the narrative because it opened my eyes to a lot of statics that were proven to be true after testing a patient who was treated poorly compare to a patient who received the care he/she needed/ was entitled to. It is very important to know this specific cultural or historical background of this topic because using statistics and having knowledge on specific cases where patient decision aid was enforced and effective will help me back my argument up with factual statements rather than meaningless opinions. 