Eastern Maine Insane Hospital

The Eastern Maine Insane Hospital know known as Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center opened on July 1, 1901.  It was built on 150 acres on a pastoral hill named “Hepatica Hill” and overlooked Bangor and the Penobscot River.  The hospital had a campus setup. The reason for this location was to allow the patients to rest from an increasingly bustling society as well as society feared people with mental illness. Due to the expense of the hospital, patients were expected to carry out maintenance as well as the daily chores or tasks to continue operating.  Nursing staff and attendants were also required to live at the facility with the patients.
Eastern Maine received great praise from the Bangor Daily, who reported, “Everything is as cheerful and homelike as possible” The whole building, in fact, has rather the appearance of some big hote.”
The patients were individuals with mental illness, and the preferred treatment was first rest, and, hydrotherapy.  As the hospital began, advancing it soon noticed other treatment modalities such as electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomies. Psychotropic medication became available later on.
The hospital also had recreational things for the patients were they played games with others as well as activities based on the seasons.
The hospital became overcrowded, and the quality of care diminished. Single beds were used as doubles and double-rooms were used for as many as six beds.  It was also stated that patients were sleeping in the halls or the basement due to the overcrowded hospital.
In 1906, the hospital was granted construction for a women’s wing and eventual a men’s wing.  The hospital was averaging 600 patients.
The hospital discontinued using having patients doing chores because they needed compensation for their time/work. Also, patients were allowed to admit themselves voluntarily to the State Hospital on July 1, 1919.
On August 26, 2005, BMHI was changed to Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center.  The hospital's mission is to, “collaborate with individuals with severe and persistent mental Illness and their community and personal supports to provide recovery-oriented, respectful, compassionate, and effective psychiatric care and treatment in the least restrictive safest and most therapeutic environment they can create”.Dorthea Dix Psychiatric - Maine.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://maine.gov/dhhs/DDPC/mission.shtml
Patients who died while in Eastern Maine Insane Hospital was not recorded, and their burial was unknown. However, information that did come up was over the Augusta Mental Health Institute in the early 1960's.   The Augusta hospital closed in 2004 and was open for 165 years in which 11,647 people died and how they believe some of the patients had been buried on the hospitals 800-acre campus on the Kennebec River.
Today Dorothea Dix is licensed for 51 beds and admits on average 300 patients a year.  Although they are experiencing budget gaps where employees needed to be laid off however still employing 188 positions.  Closing the doors has been discussed although has not happened yet.