What was mental health care/treatment like in the 70s/80s?

[DreamLengths]

Inspired by a book I read a few weeks ago (The List of Suspicious Things) which touched on this. Just wondering what it was like in those days - I know SSRIs weren't around, and nor I think were newer antipsychotics like risperidone (sp?) and quentiapine. So it would have been "older", heavier (?) medications. Were people more or less readily admitted to hospital then? I know it was less spoken about, and if the medications were "heavier" for want of a better word, were less people on them than are now?

Also if anyone has any recommendations for other books that address the recent history of metal health care, I'd be interested!

People were put in mental institutions more often. I did a short stint in one in the late 80’s, and witnessed a person having the electric shock therapy to the brain ( can’t remember what it’s called, maybe ECT?) and that wasn’t very nice to witness.
Met an inpatient who was there simply because his mother had got pregnant out of wedlock and been sent there. He grew up there and wouldn’t have coped outside. He was an elderly man when I met him.
And one inpatient murdered another while I was there.
Not a place I would have wanted to continue to work at, but fascinating while I was there.