KNIGHTDALE — When Dorothea Dix came to North Carolina in the mid 19th century, her vision was to get people with serious mental illnesses out of prison dungeons and into a safe haven. She did this by impassioned speeches to legislators about the poor conditions. She was successful in obtaining funding to begin building North Carolina’s first state hospital, in Raleigh. She also made a nearly successful attempt to get Congress to set aside 5 million acres in federal land grants that would be used to endow state mental hospitals.
Include mental health in the Dix vision – Raleigh News & Observer
October 21, 2011
