Research: Topics: Health Care: Strategic Plan for Documenting Mental Health in NY
A Strategic Plan for Documenting Mental Health in New York State
Documentation Priority Descriptions and Potential Records
Priority: Document significant approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric conditions.
The issue: New York has been at the forefront in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric conditions since the 1840s. Diagnostic and treatment research pioneered in New York has ranged from moral treatment to fever therapy to psychotropic drugs and surgical approaches. A number of nationally and internationally known research institutes and organizations have sponsored path-breaking work throughout that time. Significant individuals in the development of new diagnostic tools and treatments have worked in New York universities and institutions. Many of these developments were controversial and remain so today. Yet the documentation of the efforts over two centuries is extremely sparse: statewide, fewer than 100 collections of records exist that document diagnosis, research, or the development of treatment approaches.
Goal: To document the development and use of diagnostic methods and tools, including:
- Diagnostic philosophies
- Diagnostic and Statistic Manual I –IV
- Opposition to diagnostic approaches
Goal: To document the development and use of treatment methods including:
- 19th century treatments such as: moral treatment, homeopathic treatment
- 20th century treatments including: psychoanalysis, drug therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, surgical treatments
- Ex-patient and other critiques of treatment types
Goal: To document self-help approaches and alternatives to psychiatric treatment
- Self-help groups
- Recipient-run alternatives that issues such as housing and employment
- Self-directed rehabilitation or recovery strategies
- Spiritual programs and practices
- Alternative or complementary medicine
Goal: To document research trends including:
- 19th and 20th century research approaches
- Federal/state/local government-sponsored research
- Privately sponsored research
- Peer-controlled research and theory
- Funding of research
Existing Documentation
The State Archives search identified only 54 collections that document topics in diagnosis and treatment. Given the range of diagnosis and treatment approaches developed and used in New York over a century and a half and the enormous number of individuals affected, this historical record is clearly inadequate.
Where to look for more records (preliminary suggestions only)
- Pioneering and long-standing research facilities and the medical schools that have offered psychiatric training.
- Sponsors of mental health research
- For alternatives to medical models of diagnosis and treatment, some self-help, peer led organizations
