Lost luggage, recovered lives.

Are the lives of persons with psychiatric disabilities better today? Do they have a better chance than the owners of the Willard suitcases did of being listened to empathetically, offered a choice of humane and effective therapies, and regaining control of their lives? The common wisdom is that major advances have been made in psychiatric care over the last 60 years, largely credited to psychotropic drugs, but the evidence paints a bleaker picture. Many fewer people now spend decades in state mental institutions. However, poverty; new institutions such as prisons, nursing homes, and board and care facilities; medications of questionable efficacy and disabling side effects; and the revolving hospital door now rule the lives of millions of Americans with psychiatric disabilities. These stories from Willard State Hospital are still relevant because thousands enter our nation’s mental health system every day with limited chances of emerging unscathed or even improved. Hospital stays are considerably shorter now, but they are no more marked by recovery and full community integration than they were in the days of the large state hospitals.