Dorothea Dix helped the mentally disabled in many ways. Dorothea proceeded to visit jails and almshouses, where the mentally ill were housed, in other parts of Boston and soon her investigations extended over the entire state of
Massachusetts. Dorothea's views about the treatment of the mentally ill were extreme at the time. The popular belief was that the insane would never be cured and living within their awful conditions was enough for them. However Dorothea, just by bettering the conditions of the mentally disabled, showed people that mental illness wasn't all incurable.
Although Dorothea didn't know the mental processes that were occurring within the mentally disabled she knew that improving their conditions wouldn't hurt them. Once she succeeded she started to travel around the world in jails and almshouses to see the mentally disabled. Her health was very poor so she managed to cover every state on the east side of the
Mississippi River. In all she played a major role in founding 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble minded, a school for the blind, and a lot of training facilities for nurses. She influenced many people to help the mentally disabled today.
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