单选题
The mental health movement in the United States
began with a period of considerable enlightenment. Dorothea Dix was shocked to
find the mentally ill in jails and almshouses and crusaded for the establishment
of asylums in which people could receive humane care in hospital-like
environments and treatment, which might help restore them to sanity. By the
mid-1800s, 20 states had established asylums, but during the late 1800sand early
1900s, in the face of economic depression, legislatures were unable to
appropriate sufficient funds for decent care. Asylums became overcrowded
and prison-like. Additionally, patients were more resistant to treatment than
the pioneers in the mental health field had anticipated, and security and
restraint were needed to protect patients and others. Mental institutions became
frightening and depressing places in which the rights of patients were all but
forgotten. These conditions continued until after Word War Ⅱ.
At that time, new treatments were discovered for some major mental illnesses
therefore considered untreatable (penicillin for syphilis of the brain and
insulin treatment for schizophrenia and depressions), and a succession of books,
motion pictures, and newspaper called attention to the plight of the mental
illness. Improvements were made, and Dr. David Vail's Humane
Practices program is a beacon for today. But changes were slow in coming until
the early 1960s.At that time, the Civil Rights Movement led lawyers to
investigate America's prisons, which were disproportionately populated by
blacks, and they in turn followed prisoners into the only institutions that were
worse than the prisons—the hospitals for the criminally insane. The prisons were
filled with angry young men who, encouraged by legal support, were quick to
demand their rights. The hospitals for the criminally insane, by contrast, were
populated with people who were considered "crazy" and who were often kept
obediently in their place through the use of severe bodily restraints and large
doses of major tranquilizers. The young cadre of public interest lawyers liked
their role in the mental hospitals. The lawyers found a population that was both
passive and easy to champion. These were, after all, people who, unlike
criminals, had done nothing wrong. And in many states they were being kept in
horrendous institutions, an injustice which, once exposed was bound to shock the
public and, particularly, the judicial conscience. Judicial
interventions have had some definite positive effects, but there is growing
awareness that courts cannot provide the standards and the review mechanisms
that assure good patient care. The details of providing day-to-day care simple
cannot be mandated by a court so it is time to take from the courts the
responsibility for delivery of mental health care and assurance of patient
fights and return it to the state mental health administrators to whom the
mandate was originally given. Though it is a difficult task, administrators must
undertake to write rules and standards and to provide the training and
surveillance to assure that treatment is given and patients' rights are
respected.
单选题
The main purpose of the passage is to______.
A.discuss the influence of Dorothea Dix on the mental health movement
B.shock the reader with vivid descriptions of asylums
C.increase public awareness of the plight of the mentally ill
D.provide a historical perspective on problems of mental health
care
单选题
Which of the following would be the most appropriate topic for the
author to address in the next paragraph following the final paragraph of the
selection?______.
A.An analysis of landmark cases affecting the civil rights of prisoners and
patients in hospitals for the criminally insane.______.
B.A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of treatments that might
result in the release of mentally ill persons.______.
C.An outline of standards to guide mental health administrators in caring
for mentally ill patients while respecting their civil rights.
D.A proposal to place the administration of mental hospitals directly under
the control of the judiciary.