April 4 is the birthday of Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) the social reformer and later a Civil War nurse best known for visiting prisons and institutions warehousing the mentally ill in the 1840s. Dix advocated for the humane care and treatment of those suffering from mental illness and, as one scholar noted, she "played an instrumental role in the founding or expansion of more than 30 hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill." In an excerpt of her 1843 report to the Massachusetts Legislature, she observes, "Prisons are not constructed in view of being converted into County Hospitals, and AlmsHouses are not founded as receptacles for the Insane." As a humane alternative she called for well-built, well-run mental asylums. How far have we come since Dix spoke up? Not far enough.