Forgotten Lives

Tim Cooley

KINE 3312

Spring 2014

22 Jan, 2014

Forgotten Lives

The documentary film ‘Forgotten Lives’ by Joshua Tate provided viewers a look into the lives of mentally and emotionally handicapped individuals placed in Texas mental institutions. Tate’s purpose was to give viewers a glimpse of the maltreatment, abuse and harrowing conditions that patients endure. The film was well organized and provided viewers a look back into the treatment of patients at the Willowbrook Institution located in New York, a brief history of how mental, emotional and intellectual handicapped individuals were viewed by society and the so-called medical care they received. Tate also provided viewers a look inside Texas mental institutions, interviews with institutionalized patients, their family members and a former employee who abused patients and witnessed other employees abusing patients.

I felt sick to my stomach watching this documentary. In 2014, it is unimaginable that this type of abuse occurs. I believe the number one factor that allows the maltreatment of these individuals is “the out of sight – out of mind” philosophy. There needs to be more Joshua Tates publicizing the abuses occurring and advocating for those institutionalized. Until the issue appears on nationally televised news channels and becomes front page headlines in the New York Times, U.S.A. Today and other widely read publications it will never be fixed. The institutionalized need a Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi or a Nelson Mandela to be their voice and lead the change. Social injustices have a history of being fixed and addressed when they have a spokesperson who publicizes the injustices, who galvanizes supporters and leads change.

The Disabled Persons Protection Commission of Massachusetts provides a list of 17 factors that lead to the abuse of those with disabilities. These factors include:

- Restricted social environments

- Powerless

- Unable to distinguish between proper touching and...