12/05/2022
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), primary mental health advocate for the establishment of Greystone and Trenton State Psychiatric Hospitals, is honored to be included in the 2022 New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Dorothea Dix: Driving Force Behind The Establishment of State Psychiatric Hospitals
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) was a Civil War nurse who later played an instrumental role in the founding or expansion of more than 30 hospitals, nationwide, for the treatment of mental illness. Ms. Dix conducted on-site research and prepared lengthy reports for state legislatures. She traveled as a single woman, often under very difficult weather and transportation conditions, to remote locations.
In 1839-1840, the NJ Legislature compiled a report documenting the condition of the insane individuals in NJ, for the purpose of determining if a state psychiatric hospital was necessary. That report identified a statewide total of “252 insane males, 163 insane females, 93 male idiots, and 103 female idiots." However, this report and the mental health crisis were not a high priority
for NJ's legislature and they took no action.
Ms. Dix felt that the 1840 numbers of NJ's mentally ill citizens were underestimated and the number of mentally impaired people had noticeably grown since the 1840 report. To document the increased need for a second NJ psychiatric hospital, Ms. Dix visited jails, poor houses, and other municipal institutions in all of NJ’s counties.
Dorothea Dix prepared and presented her "Memorial Soliciting a State Hospital for the Insane. Submitted to the Legislature of NJ, January 23, 1845.“ This 46 page document can be found in the “Additional Information” section of www.greytoneoralhistory.com. It contains extensive details regarding numbers of NJ mentally ill individuals, the projected costs of treating patients, and a comparison with the success of various psychiatric hospitals within the United States, Canada, and France.
After reading her Memorial, Ms. Dix beseeched the legislators to take action when she stated, "Citizens of New Jersey, have you human feelings, and can you delay this work which is solicited for the benefit of those who are, in the providence of God, cast on your care? Who are emphatically your wards, the wards of the state, for whose condition hereafter you are certainly accountable—insomuch as you are largely able to provide such a refuge for the unfriended and asylum for the diseased, as their forlorn condition requires?" This time, Ms. Dix’s urgent plea was heard and NJ’s legislature began planning for a second psychiatric hospital, i.e. Greystone.
Find more information at: https://www.greystoneoralhistory.com/
