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Susie Cougar · 08-04-2022, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SailinAway

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sue Doe-Nym

Back in 1960, as part of my college major, I worked at Embreeville State Hospital in Chester County, PA, about an hour west of Philadelphia. At the time, I remember having an initial impression of disbelief that there were so many mentally ill patients housed there, many in total lockdown for their own protection. It certainly wasn’t a happy place, but they were all well cared for as far as medical and psychiatric treatment, medication, housing, nutrition, and all that one needs in order to exist. I learned a lot while there and certainly considered the training valuable. However, not too many years later, some brilliant politicians decided that mental hospitals were inhumane places, and one by one, they were closed, leaving the inmates to basically fend for themselves, which they were largely unable to do. My rendition of this is oversimplified, but that’s when the homeless problem gathered momentum, along with drug and alcohol addiction…..and that’s why we have a tale of two cities in many places, not just Laconia. JMO, of course.

"Some brilliant politicians decided that mental hospitals were inhumane places"? Goodness, no. Mental institutions around the country were closed as a result of advocacy by the residents of the institutions and their families.

I'm afraid the idea that people were well cared for at the Laconia State School is a fantasy. For a more realistic perspective, see this film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UesOm2HTm2I

The Laconia State School closed in 1991 following a federal class-action lawsuit, Garrity v. Gallen. In that case, the court ruled that "the state was violating the civil rights of the residents by denying them rehabilitative treatment in the least restrictive environment possible." (Foster's)

679 "feebleminded" people were forcibly sterilized there under a 1929 state law. Living conditions were not anything that you would tolerate for your family members today. According to a former resident, "Punishment for misbehavior included food deprivation, cold showers, being forced to stand outside wearing little or no clothing, being hit on the head with a board and being pushed and prodded with sharp objects."

Boston.com: "The school was supposed to be a training institution, but during testimony in the 1980 trial, witnesses said it was a human warehouse where residents were often left alone to sit naked in their feces and urine. Staff prodded residents with hatpins, burned them with cigarettes, and kicked them. They also shut off the water at night, forcing anyone who was thirsty to drink from the toilets."

This is true. I was only 17 years old as a freshman at Belknap College and I was taking a psychology class. Our teacher took us there for a “field trip “. To say that I was traumatized, is an understatement.

I saw what you just described. We walked in and the building just smelled so strongly of urine and there were naked people chained up standing all around the corners. I remember just walking in a daze and then we were standing around a crib where they had an encephalitic baby in there unable to hold her head up off the crib mattress but smiling at us nonetheless because we were paying attention to her. It just broke my heart. I have never gotten over that visit to this day. I don’t remember most of it, but it is just knowing that this was happening and no one cared. I don’t know why it took them so long to close it down. It wasn’t like it was a secret.

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