The Story of Hershel Nobleman
Mental health issues have recently been in the news again due to vicious attacks on former Fall River Mayor Flanagan.
For centuries, society has struggled to understand mental illness. In the 1800s, when families could no longer care for their mentally ill loved ones, many turned to newly established “asylums.” Often set in quiet rural settings, these institutions were originally created as places of healing and peace. Reformers such as Dorothea Dix and Dr. Thomas Kirkbride believed that people could recover from mental suffering through kindness, structure, and rest.
It worked at first. Early hospitals emphasized light, fresh air, and meaningful work. Patients gardened, painted, and socialized. Mental health treatment was finally recognized as a medical problem rather than a moral failure.
But in the early 1900s, the system began to break down. The population inside this hospital exploded. The situation became more severe due to lack of manpower and funds. People have been locked up for decades, sometimes for problems that today can be treated with drugs or therapy.
In the mid-20th century, reports of neglect and abuse shocked the nation. Famous exposés, such as journalist Nellie Bly’s undercover story “Ten Days in a Mad-House,” exposed what was really going on behind the scenes.
Then the 1950s and 1960s were a turning point. New drugs, such as Thorazine, have given hope that people can survive outside of institutions. Lawmakers passed policies to close asylums and move patients to community-based care. This process, called deinstitutionalization, was seen as a new era of freedom and modern treatment.
Unfortunately, many of these community programs were never established or were severely underfunded.
As older hospitals closed, tens of thousands of people were discharged with nowhere to go. In the decades that followed, rates of homelessness and incarceration among the mentally ill soared. Prisons, emergency rooms, and city streets have quietly replaced mental hospitals.
Advantages of Mental Institutions: ✅ Provide long-term treatment and supervision for people who are unable to live independently. ✅ Provides stability and structure that is still lacking today. ✅ At their best, they treated mental illness as real and treatable.
Cons: ❌ Many have become overcrowded, abusive, and inhumane. ❌ Patients often lost their rights and identity. ❌ They created a stigma. People feared being “kicked out” forever.
Where we are now:
Mental health is finally becoming part of the public conversation. We talk about anxiety, depression, and trauma more openly than ever before. But our system has become thinner. Waiting lists for treatment are long, psychiatric beds are in short supply, and many police departments double as front lines for the mental health response.
Some experts believe we now need modern mental health campuses – safe, dignified facilities that provide long-term treatment rather than punishment. This will not be the old psychiatric hospital of the past, but a new center focused on recovery, education and social reintegration.
Should they come back?
Perhaps not in the older format, but you may need something similar. Too many people suffer in silence on the streets, in hospitals, and in prisons. Humane, well-funded systems can provide stability, dignity, and a real path to healing.
Because the walls of the old mental hospitals may have fallen, but so have the needs they were trying to meet. The question is not whether they should come back, but how to make it better this time.
