The first American psychiatric hospital opened its doors in 1773. Since then these institutions have played a large role in the country’s mental health care system. Host Anita Rao meets two people who have personal accounts of institutionalization, and although their stays were decades apart, the parallels between their stories shed light on the limitations of psychiatric hospitals.
After losing her mother early in life, author Suzanne Scanlon uprooted to a new city to start afresh at university. Grief mixed with disorientation left Suzanne reeling and she ended up in the New York State Psychiatric Institute in August 1992. Suzanne shares with Anita how she spent nearly three years in hospital, where she underwent experimental therapies and diagnoses. Suzanne’s full account can be found in her new memoir, “Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen”.
Anita also speaks with organizer and healer Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkulu about their own time at multiple contemporary psychiatric institutes. Stefanie explains how their traumatic involuntary commitments pushed them to reimagine mental health care outside of psychiatric hospitals and treatments with community and peer support in mind. Stefanie’s organization Project LETs is working towards this future.
Special thanks to Dr. Laura Lopez-Aybar and Chanika Svetvilas for their contributions.
**If you or someone you know is in an emotional crisis, reach out to the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting 988.**
