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Impact of Wyatt v. Stickney on Mental Health Care Rights and Deinstitutionalization Research Paper

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Introduction

The case of Wyatt V. Stickney has a critical role in the perception of mental health care in modern American society. The key issue in the discussed case is that all individuals possess the constitutional right to personalized care that will offer each of them a chance to recover from their mental illness or alleviate their condition (Scull, 2022). The court cleared the ground for widespread deinstitutionalization by articulating a right to therapy based on objective information (Scull, 2022). It includes the precise staffing ratios and additional accurate requirements that the state could not achieve due to costs and a failure to recruit enough specialists (Scull, 2022). It states that the case Wyatt V. Stickney ensured the legal basis behind the right of every mentally ill individual to receive professional help and treatment.

Discussion

Financial problems in the state and the hospital triggered the crisis preceding the discussed case. Over a hundred personnel at Bryce Hospital in Alabama were terminated due to a funding shortfall, including twenty occupational therapists, social workers, and psychologists (Scull, 2022). The Bryce University Department of Psychology led the lawsuit for rehabilitation filed by the employees who were fired and included a patient named Ricky Wyatt, the nephew of one of the dismissed workers (Scull, 2022).

By having the patient, the lawsuit could claim that the reductions harmed how clients were treated (Scull, 2022). Judge Frank M. Johnson of the Federal District Court rejected the specialists’ claim, concluding that the state of Alabama’s Department of Mental Health had the legal authority to fire staff members (Scull, 2022). However, he agreed to analyze the patient’s problems as a result of the discussed processes. As a result, the quality of patient care improved significantly in the long-term perspective.

It required much time and effort to ensure that the right of mentally ill patients to receive treatment is followed. According to Judge Johnson, patients undoubtedly possess a constitutional right to receive customized therapy that will allow them to be healed or enhance their mental conditions (Scull, 2022). He also found that the hospital’s initiatives did not meet the established minimum requirements for treating the mentally ill (Scull, 2022). The judge stated that the equal protection of all individuals articulated in the Constitution had been broken (Scull, 2022). In particular, it is against the basic foundations of due process to remove any citizen of their freedom on the benevolent assumption that their detention is necessary for needs and subsequently fail to offer adequate therapy.

The constitutional right to treatment was acknowledged due to the Wyatt case. States, however, were not ready to take the chance of costly court-ordered renovations of public mental facilities (Scull, 2022). Patients were discharged from hospitals nationwide, ostensibly to receive care in the community (Scull, 2022). Nevertheless, no alternative facilities provided treatment for them (Scull, 2022). As a result, a thorough reform of mental health care was not possible after the ratification of the case developments.

Conclusion

Therefore, Wyatt V. Stickney changed the standards of the medical care provided to mentally ill patients. The substantial deinstitutionalization of formerly committed patients was made possible thanks mainly to Wyatt. However, at its implementation, the state governments could not fulfill all the requirements articulated by the case. The state spent significant money renovating outdated buildings to adhere to Judge Johnson’s decision, but this effort was quickly abandoned when numerous patients were discharged. There were no alternative healthcare facilities for treating them at that moment, but decades after the precedent happened, these changes were implemented successfully.

Reference

Scull, A. (2022). Desperate remedies: Psychiatry’s turbulent quest to cure mental illness. Harvard University Press.

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IvyPanda. (2024, December 21). Impact of Wyatt v. Stickney on Mental Health Care Rights and Deinstitutionalization. https://ivypanda.com/essays/impact-of-wyatt-v-stickney-on-mental-health-care-rights-and-deinstitutionalization/

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"Impact of Wyatt v. Stickney on Mental Health Care Rights and Deinstitutionalization." IvyPanda, 21 Dec. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/impact-of-wyatt-v-stickney-on-mental-health-care-rights-and-deinstitutionalization/.

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IvyPanda. (2024) 'Impact of Wyatt v. Stickney on Mental Health Care Rights and Deinstitutionalization'. 21 December.

References

IvyPanda. 2024. "Impact of Wyatt v. Stickney on Mental Health Care Rights and Deinstitutionalization." December 21, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/impact-of-wyatt-v-stickney-on-mental-health-care-rights-and-deinstitutionalization/.

1. IvyPanda. "Impact of Wyatt v. Stickney on Mental Health Care Rights and Deinstitutionalization." December 21, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/impact-of-wyatt-v-stickney-on-mental-health-care-rights-and-deinstitutionalization/.


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IvyPanda. "Impact of Wyatt v. Stickney on Mental Health Care Rights and Deinstitutionalization." December 21, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/impact-of-wyatt-v-stickney-on-mental-health-care-rights-and-deinstitutionalization/.

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