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Old 08-03-2022, 09:53 PM   #26
Sue Doe-Nym
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Default Recollections of times past

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.
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