The Mental Health Bell

For many years, asylums often restrained people with mental illnesses by iron chains and shackles around their ankles and wrists. Thankfully, this cruel practice eventually stopped. In the early 1950's, the National Mental Health Association (NMHA) asked asylums across the country for their discarded chains and shackles. They melted-down these inhumane bindings and recast them into a sign of hope the Mental Health Bell now the symbol of the NMHA. This Bell serves as a powerful reminder that invisible chains of misunderstanding and discrimination continue to bind people with mental illnesses. Fortunately, many advances have been made. There is a greater understanding of the causes of mental illness and new treatments and medications have been developed. But much still needs to be done.