Payne v. Milwaukee Sanitarium Foundation, Inc.

It was not too long ago that hospitals for the mentally ill were known as asylums for the insane. Emphasis was upon the custodial aspect of the institutionalization — barred windows, locked doors, straitjaekets and physical restraint to prevent inmates from harming themselves or others.

Today, with more known about the cause and cure of mental illness, the mental hospital has become primarily a treatment facility. While maximum security units are retained, the primary emphasis is now upon therapy and rehabilitation. An attending psychiatrist’s order that a particular patient be assigned to an…