The Rights of Americans With Mental Illness

This contribution to the literature starts by summarizing the history of psychiatric services in America from the time of our colonization to the present. It then discusses the Bill of Rights and the subsequent "rights" gained by the mentally ill, largely through state legislative or legal actions. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of how the entire area of rights has been swept up in a larger attempt to achieve a federal Bill of Patients' Rights and then a Health Reform Act in 2010.