In 1848, the Indiana Hospital for the Insane opened in line with the ideas of Moral Treatment. This widespread movement came in response to humanitarian reform efforts led by the Quakers and an emerging idea in medicine that mental diseases were just that- diseases.

Moral Treatment was a huge step in the right direction and a far cry from the asylum system that previously dominated the field we now know as psychiatry. But the grand vision held by early supporters, administrators, and physicians did not play out as expected for a variety of reasons. By the turn of the last century, as new mental hospitals were popping up all over the State and filling up with patients who weren't likely to recover quickly...if at all, it was clear that a new strategy was needed.