Praxis II Citizenship

Answer: A - Dorothea Dix advocated on behalf of the mentally ill. Dix was the Superintendent of Army Nurses during the Civil War. Prior to the war she was a social activist, lobbying the federal government and state governments on behalf of people who were medically deemed insane. She also focused on the link between poverty and mental illness, becoming one of the first people to recognize and publicly express that there was frequently a link between people being unable to provide for themselves and having illness. Her activism resulted in some of the first mental hospitals (or insane asylums) in the United States and legislation to protect the condition of patients in mental hospitals. After the war, she returned to activism.