Only the naive believe that patients in a state mental hospital get much personal attention from psychiatrists. There are too few psychiatrists and too many patients; the ratio is about 1 to 100. Many of the doctors are administrators who never see patients, and most of them have at least some administrative duties. And after the doctor takes out time for staff meetings and professional conferences, the patient is lucky if he gets 15 minutes of a psychiatrist's time a week.
So who helps the patient? Kansas' Topeka State Hospital declares in an official pamphlet: "Patients are directly dependent...
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