A month ago, Massachusetts became one of the only governments in the world to recognize that its citizens have a basic human right to fresh air — especially while undergoing treatment for a mental illness. Outgoing Governor Deval Patrick surprised mental health advocates with his signing into law the “Fresh Air” act.
The law adds the right to “daily access to fresh air and the outdoors” to persons confined in inpatient psychiatric facilities in the state.
Jonathan Dosick, a long-time champion of mental health rights in the state, had been tirelessly working to get the Fresh Air bill passed since 2005. Ten years later, his efforts have finally paid off.
It may seem a little hard to understand why you would need a law to guarantee inpatients the right to something that is already freely available — fresh air. But if you spend any amount of time in nearly any psychiatric inpatient facility in the U.S., you’d quickly understand how little patients see of the outdoors.
[For more of this story, written by John M. Grohol, go to http://psychcentral.com/blog/a...-right-to-fresh-air/]
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