The Athens Lunatic Asylum, later renamed The Ridges, is located in Athens Ohio. The institution was open from 1874 to 1993 and remains the only Asylum still standing in Ohio. This 544 patient room facility was once the largest employer in Athens and is best known for being the original site of the controversial Lobotomy. Recovered documents revealed common practices within the Asylum included; hydrotherapy, electroshock therapy, the Lobotomy and use of psychotropic drugs.
In the annual report of 1876, common reasons for admission included; masterbation, intemperance and dissipation in males. In the early years, females were admitted for mental illness treatment caused by; puerperal conditions, change of life and menstrual derangement. Epliepsy, menopause, alcohol addiction and Tuberculosis provided adequate criteria to be classified as mentally ill and requiring institutionalization.
During the late 19th century, modeled after European standards of care and due to the great efforts of progressive leaders, treatment for mentally ill persons in the US began to shift. Lobotomies and other harsh treatment modalities were banned and much like the Tukes philosophy, patients were given working roles within the Asylum. Patients earned rights to roam the grounds, attend church services, plays and tend the farms and orchards. This movement created a sense of confidence and assurance in the general public. People quickly became comfortable with sending aging parents or teenager that were difficult to manage to institutions to receive what was known as great care, which quickly lead to over crowding, exhausted resources and decline in care. The pendulum continues to swing and the work remains in finding a balance.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
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.
Monday, July 13, 2015
New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum (by Barbara)
<p>I chose the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, founded by Dorothea Dix May 15, 1848 because the video we watched stated that Dix spent the end of her life in private quarters here. When she retired at the age of 80, she took a private apartment at the asylum and remained there until her death five years later. I was expecting something rather grand and certainly very humane. This was the first of Dix’s asylums in the country, and it was clear that she intended it to be a place of humane care and treatment.</p>
<p>It was the first American asylum built on the Kirkbride plan, an architectural style developed on the moral treatment philosophy in which the building itself is part of the cure and included privacy, easy access to sunlight and fresh air, and expansive grounds. Dix excited interest in this asylum by stressing the particular case of an elderly gentleman who had been a member of the state Legislature but in his old age became “insane” and was left to suffer first in a jail and later in an almshouse. Despite her ceaseless efforts, she had to apply pressure for several years before the asylum became a reality. Intended to take a portion of residents from each of the New Jersey counties, the asylum was self-sufficient with its own kitchens, gardens, laundries, livestock, and so on. There were separate dorms for males and females, with a capacity of about 200 patients. Separate buildings provided housing for staff. In 1855, additional buildings were put up that increased the capacity by another 250 patients and caregivers. Additional buildings, some intended to house patients and others intended for more scientific purposes, such a laboratory, or for better functioning of the asylum, such as a bakery, continued through the 19th century. There were different facilities for the wealthy patient than for the penniless ones, particularly around the quality of food, and an entirely separate facility was dedicated to those who were deemed incurable. At the end of the century, the asylum was recognized as having the largest library of any asylum in the country.</p>
<p>When the asylum opened in 1848 under superintendent Dr Buttolph, it housed 86 patients. Dr Buttolph is remembered for instituting occupational therapy and the elimination of physical restraints. Dr Ward replaced Dr Buttolph and served for 40 years, leaving a rich legacy of service and ability. In 1961, John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) was admitted to this hospital as a patient, and it is fortunate that he was not admitted even a single year earlier because Dr. Ward’s successor, Dr Henry Cotton, was convinced that mental illness was caused by infection and began the practice of removing patient’s teeth, tonsils, and other body parts (including legs, arms, and organs) to remove infection or to prevent its spread. The practice of removing a patient’s teeth persisted until 1960 despite hundreds of fatalities and thousands of maimings at the hospital. Dr Cotton was truly a mad doctor and, despite the high number of fatalities that occurred under his stewardship of the asylum, no one stopped or even spoke out against these involuntary and barbaric maimings and murders. Even more shocking, the removal of patient’s teeth remained a commonplace procedure for thirty years after he had left the asylum even though science clearly did not support the ‘focal sepsis’ theory of mental illness. In 2007, Andrew Scull published the real story of Dr Cotton’s horrendous practices and exposed the professionals through the years who participated in the cover-up. I found it interesting to discover that when Dr Cotton became ill in 1925 and took a temporary leave from the asylum, he had all of his own teeth removed and later returned to his duties at the asylum. I also noticed that the scholarly online sources focus on Dr Cotton’s modernity and advances, fail to mention his barbaric practices.</p>
<p>The Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, as it is now known, is a modern 450-bed institution - rather an alarming increase over the the 80-plus patients it originally housed, and even more so when you realize that many of the original buildings have been closed off and left to decay in place. The hospital’s website proclaims “compassionate care” and “human response” while ignoring its dark past. Recently, the hospital has been in the news for an attack by one inmate on another that left the attacked patient permanently blind and missing an eyeball. In recent years, families of patients at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital have called it a zoo, and published analysis shows that from 2005 to 2010 it had the “highest rates of violence and patient restraint compared to New Jersey's other four state psychiatric hospitals.” </p>
<p>I wasn’t able to find out how many people had passed through the doors, either as patients or as staff, because the hospital has been through several reincarnations and continues to operate today.</p>
<p>The asylum, originally intended to humanely house and care for people whose mental illness made it impossible to be cared for safely in a noninstitutionalized setting, had promising beginnings. During the 19th century, a great deal of effort was put into creating a place that was welcoming, light, and hospitable. Unfortunately, the hospital became very large, at times housing double and even treble the original 200 inhabitants planned for. Although there were buildings enough to house everyone and the campus was expanded to house more caregivers and buildings were built for water supply, food storage and processing, etc., I maintain that it is not to the benefit of the patient to be one of so very many. Smaller scale, more attention to each individual, is necessary. The asylum - and mental health professions at large - suffered terribly due not only to Dr Cotton’s horrifying practices but also due to the cover up within mental health circles. When questions led to concerns great enough to send investigators to the asylum, the reports that were made failed to reveal what was really going on. This cover up continued until the present century and even now, online sites may fail to reveal the true scope of Dr Cotton’s actions and the hospitals perpetuation of his practices for thirty years after his departure.</p>
<p>http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Trenton_State_Hospital http://www.the-line-up.com/trenton-psychiatric-hospital/ http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2014/10/trenton_psychiatric_patient_accused_in_attack_that_left_roommate_blind.html http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/hunterdon-county/express-times/index.ssf/2011/08/trenton_hospital_records_show.html</p>
<p>It was the first American asylum built on the Kirkbride plan, an architectural style developed on the moral treatment philosophy in which the building itself is part of the cure and included privacy, easy access to sunlight and fresh air, and expansive grounds. Dix excited interest in this asylum by stressing the particular case of an elderly gentleman who had been a member of the state Legislature but in his old age became “insane” and was left to suffer first in a jail and later in an almshouse. Despite her ceaseless efforts, she had to apply pressure for several years before the asylum became a reality. Intended to take a portion of residents from each of the New Jersey counties, the asylum was self-sufficient with its own kitchens, gardens, laundries, livestock, and so on. There were separate dorms for males and females, with a capacity of about 200 patients. Separate buildings provided housing for staff. In 1855, additional buildings were put up that increased the capacity by another 250 patients and caregivers. Additional buildings, some intended to house patients and others intended for more scientific purposes, such a laboratory, or for better functioning of the asylum, such as a bakery, continued through the 19th century. There were different facilities for the wealthy patient than for the penniless ones, particularly around the quality of food, and an entirely separate facility was dedicated to those who were deemed incurable. At the end of the century, the asylum was recognized as having the largest library of any asylum in the country.</p>
<p>When the asylum opened in 1848 under superintendent Dr Buttolph, it housed 86 patients. Dr Buttolph is remembered for instituting occupational therapy and the elimination of physical restraints. Dr Ward replaced Dr Buttolph and served for 40 years, leaving a rich legacy of service and ability. In 1961, John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) was admitted to this hospital as a patient, and it is fortunate that he was not admitted even a single year earlier because Dr. Ward’s successor, Dr Henry Cotton, was convinced that mental illness was caused by infection and began the practice of removing patient’s teeth, tonsils, and other body parts (including legs, arms, and organs) to remove infection or to prevent its spread. The practice of removing a patient’s teeth persisted until 1960 despite hundreds of fatalities and thousands of maimings at the hospital. Dr Cotton was truly a mad doctor and, despite the high number of fatalities that occurred under his stewardship of the asylum, no one stopped or even spoke out against these involuntary and barbaric maimings and murders. Even more shocking, the removal of patient’s teeth remained a commonplace procedure for thirty years after he had left the asylum even though science clearly did not support the ‘focal sepsis’ theory of mental illness. In 2007, Andrew Scull published the real story of Dr Cotton’s horrendous practices and exposed the professionals through the years who participated in the cover-up. I found it interesting to discover that when Dr Cotton became ill in 1925 and took a temporary leave from the asylum, he had all of his own teeth removed and later returned to his duties at the asylum. I also noticed that the scholarly online sources focus on Dr Cotton’s modernity and advances, fail to mention his barbaric practices.</p>
<p>The Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, as it is now known, is a modern 450-bed institution - rather an alarming increase over the the 80-plus patients it originally housed, and even more so when you realize that many of the original buildings have been closed off and left to decay in place. The hospital’s website proclaims “compassionate care” and “human response” while ignoring its dark past. Recently, the hospital has been in the news for an attack by one inmate on another that left the attacked patient permanently blind and missing an eyeball. In recent years, families of patients at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital have called it a zoo, and published analysis shows that from 2005 to 2010 it had the “highest rates of violence and patient restraint compared to New Jersey's other four state psychiatric hospitals.” </p>
<p>I wasn’t able to find out how many people had passed through the doors, either as patients or as staff, because the hospital has been through several reincarnations and continues to operate today.</p>
<p>The asylum, originally intended to humanely house and care for people whose mental illness made it impossible to be cared for safely in a noninstitutionalized setting, had promising beginnings. During the 19th century, a great deal of effort was put into creating a place that was welcoming, light, and hospitable. Unfortunately, the hospital became very large, at times housing double and even treble the original 200 inhabitants planned for. Although there were buildings enough to house everyone and the campus was expanded to house more caregivers and buildings were built for water supply, food storage and processing, etc., I maintain that it is not to the benefit of the patient to be one of so very many. Smaller scale, more attention to each individual, is necessary. The asylum - and mental health professions at large - suffered terribly due not only to Dr Cotton’s horrifying practices but also due to the cover up within mental health circles. When questions led to concerns great enough to send investigators to the asylum, the reports that were made failed to reveal what was really going on. This cover up continued until the present century and even now, online sites may fail to reveal the true scope of Dr Cotton’s actions and the hospitals perpetuation of his practices for thirty years after his departure.</p>
<p>http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Trenton_State_Hospital http://www.the-line-up.com/trenton-psychiatric-hospital/ http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2014/10/trenton_psychiatric_patient_accused_in_attack_that_left_roommate_blind.html http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/hunterdon-county/express-times/index.ssf/2011/08/trenton_hospital_records_show.html</p>
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Module 5 Bedlam Redux Blog Post Directions / Prompt
Dorothea Dix was VERY successful in her advocacy for people with mental illness. Asylums were built in every state, originally to support the humane care of people with mental illness. These institutions grew exponentially over time, in part due to Dix's advocacy, from the 1850s into the 1960s. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, journalists started exposing, once again, the horrible conditions that existed in institutions (A Dorothea Dix Deja Vous, 100 years later) Some of these institutions were also segregated by race, particularly in the South (as were their cemeteries).
Choose one of these infamous institutions in another state. Research and briefly summarize it’s history, using the prompts in this template below. CREATE A NEW POST (not just a reply). In the upper right of this blog screen it has a link "new post." That is where you will create your post. In the Title box, list the name the institution and State is was located in. (for example, Pineland - Maine). Then just type up the answers to the prompts and post / publish.
When was this "asylum" opened, and what did it look like?
What was it's original intent?
Who were the patients there?
What was the patients' experience like in that institution, and did that change over the course of the institution's history?
How did the institution, its services, and patients change over time?
How many people lived and worked and died there?
Were bad conditions ever exposed to the public? How?
Comment on at least 2 of your classmates' posts / research. Please do this early in the week so that other students will have time to read what you post.
Choose one of these infamous institutions in another state. Research and briefly summarize it’s history, using the prompts in this template below. CREATE A NEW POST (not just a reply). In the upper right of this blog screen it has a link "new post." That is where you will create your post. In the Title box, list the name the institution and State is was located in. (for example, Pineland - Maine). Then just type up the answers to the prompts and post / publish.
When was this "asylum" opened, and what did it look like?
What was it's original intent?
Who were the patients there?
What was the patients' experience like in that institution, and did that change over the course of the institution's history?
How did the institution, its services, and patients change over time?
How many people lived and worked and died there?
Were bad conditions ever exposed to the public? How?
Comment on at least 2 of your classmates' posts / research. Please do this early in the week so that other students will have time to read what you post.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
100 Years from now.....
As I read about historical "scientific" approaches to mental illness, I can't help but reflect on today's practices. For example, Moral Treatment, began in part, as a backlash to the harsh treatments of the time. Pinel and Pussin both believed that people deserved to be treated with kindness. I see similar parallels in today's treatment approaches. On one hand, there is the medical model of diagnosis, and treatment -- with the physician as expert. In many ways, like Benjamin Rush's residents, psychiatrists today are taught to not let their sentiments get in the way, as they know best. Forced treatment happens with regularity. Unfortunately, the "patients" are right much of the time...about the negative effects of their treatments, and are legitimately resistant and noncompliant. Yet, somehow, their perspectives are disregarded, as they are "irrational," and obviously not as smart as the expert psychiatrist. I see recovery and psychiatric survivor movements as a backlash (in part) to this medical model, repeating patterns of the past. (Opposing forces -- Mad Doctors v. Moral Treatment)
It's easy to look back and be critical of the treatments that were considered "cutting edge" at that time -- for example, drowning, spinning, drinking concoctions, bloodletting, flogging. Often people with mental illness experienced these "treatments" negatively, yet these perspectives were disregarded, and "science" prevailed over human experience. Residents were taught to not let their emotions cloud their judgment.
What are we doing today (cite a specific practice or treatment) that YOU think will be criticized harshly when seen through the lens of history, 100 or even 200 years from now? To what degree are we disregarding patient experience now, and why do you think that happens?
Reply to this post and at least 2 of your classmates' replies.
It's easy to look back and be critical of the treatments that were considered "cutting edge" at that time -- for example, drowning, spinning, drinking concoctions, bloodletting, flogging. Often people with mental illness experienced these "treatments" negatively, yet these perspectives were disregarded, and "science" prevailed over human experience. Residents were taught to not let their emotions cloud their judgment.
What are we doing today (cite a specific practice or treatment) that YOU think will be criticized harshly when seen through the lens of history, 100 or even 200 years from now? To what degree are we disregarding patient experience now, and why do you think that happens?
Reply to this post and at least 2 of your classmates' replies.
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