History & Beginnings
Residents of Indiana that were affected by mental illness were completely without treatment before the opening of Central State Hospital. They were often housed in extremely poor conditions like county jails or halfway houses if their families were not willing to take them in for care (4).
Dorothea Dix, a renowned activist for the mentally ill, had visited some of the housing places for the patients in Indiana in 1844 and was appalled by the conditions she had found people living in. She was able to convince Indiana legislators to open an, “insane asylum,” and oversee the facilitation and conditions of the new project (1).
​
​
Portrait of Dorothea Dix used under Public Domain
Gracefully aging by ken fager used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Central State Hospital was opened as the Indiana Hospital for the Insane in 1848 when its first 5 patients were admitted. The hospital was revolutionary for its time as it decided to rehabilitate those with mental illness rather than just house them and get them off the streets. (1)
Unfortunately, the first decade or so of the hospitals opening was rocked with understaffing and poor funding which caused a lot of patients to be sent back to their original counties. (3)
But, it is important to note that Central State Hospital opened as a catalyst and was intended to be revolutionary in the era of a constantly changing view of mental health. At the time, the practices and ideology were cutting-edge and simultaneously experimental. (1)
​
You can currently go to the Indiana Medical History Museum and get an extensive background on the successes and failures of Central State Hospital.
Indiana Medical History Museum by Huw Williams under Public Domain