A tale of two cities

[SailinAway]

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.

Originally Posted by SAMIAM

Sue, you are so right. A good example is the Laconia State School. In spite of abuse accusations the people there were at least housed, fed and given medical services. When they were sent out into the community they had no idea how to even care for themselves. The result was a disaster for Laconia .

"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."

[SailinAway]

By the way, there are other homeless populations that we don't really recognize as such. One is the thousands of senior citizens who live in their van, spend the night in Wal-Mart parking lots, and work at very low-paid jobs at Wal-Mart and other menial jobs because they have no pension or retirement savings. They wander from one state to the next trying to escape from either the cold or the heat. Another is the same population who spend the summer and sometimes winter in their van serving as hosts in our national forests. Yes, that includes the White Mountain National Forest. All of these people are an inch away from being destitute. Their fate has nothing to do with mental illness, drug addiction, or alcoholism. It has to do with not playing the game right in a game that was stacked against them early on, and the life events I mentioned above.

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by SailinAway

By the way, there are other homeless populations that we don't really recognize as such. One is the thousands of senior citizens who live in their van, spend the night in Wal-Mart parking lots, and work at very low-paid jobs at Wal-Mart and other menial jobs because they have no pension or retirement savings. They wander from one state to the next trying to escape from either the cold or the heat. Another is the same population who spend the summer and sometimes winter in their van serving as hosts in our national forests. Yes, that includes the White Mountain National Forest. All of these people are an inch away from being destitute. Their fate has nothing to do with mental illness, drug addiction, or alcoholism. It has to do with not playing the game right in a game that was stacked against them early on, and the life events I mentioned above.

Not so much...
Two sets of grandparents...
One in Center Harbor and Moultonboro... house, toys, and trappings of wealth.
One in Laconia... reasonable house, no toys, and investments for the future.

Both retired to small cottages in Belmont.... which do you think had the larger monthly retirement income?

[Sue Doe-Nym]

Originally Posted by SailinAway

"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."

If your post is accurate, it seems that the rehabilitation facilities themselves needed massive rehabilitation. How much better off would everyone be if that had been accomplished instead of turning mentally ill or addicted people loose from institutions, individuals who were incapable of independent functioning in the outside world? How sad.

[Seaplane Pilot]

How about we stop sending billions of dollars to foreign countries that either gets stolen by corrupt politicians or wasted by same. Then, let's stop giving free everything to illegal aliens, and send them back from where they came. Now, with all the billions we have saved, we can 1) use it to help the veterans who gave their service to this country in order to protect your freedoms, and 2) use it to address the homeless population and starving Americans.

[LoveLakeLife]

Originally Posted by Seaplane Pilot

How about we stop sending billions of dollars to foreign countries that either gets stolen by corrupt politicians or wasted by same. Then, let's stop giving free everything to illegal aliens, and send them back from where they came. Now, with all the billions we have saved, we can 1) use it to help the veterans who gave their service to this country in order to protect your freedoms, and 2) use it to address the homeless population and starving Americans.

Sounds sensible.


Sent from my iPhone using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by Seaplane Pilot

How about we stop sending billions of dollars to foreign countries that either gets stolen by corrupt politicians or wasted by same. Then, let's stop giving free everything to illegal aliens, and send them back from where they came. Now, with all the billions we have saved, we can 1) use it to help the veterans who gave their service to this country in order to protect your freedoms, and 2) use it to address the homeless population and starving Americans.

Other expenditures do not inhibit the federal government from such expenditures; which can be easily seen in federal expenditures.

[SailinAway]

Originally Posted by Sue Doe-Nym

If your post is accurate, it seems that the rehabilitation facilities themselves needed massive rehabilitation. How much better off would everyone be if that had been accomplished instead of turning mentally ill or addicted people loose from institutions, individuals who were incapable of independent functioning in the outside world? How sad.

A legal principle of supporting people with disabilities is "least restrictive environment." If you have a child with a disability, you child will be placed in the least restrictive school environment that will meet his needs. This allowed children with disabilities to be moved from self-contained special education classrooms, where they only had contact with other disabled children and limited opportunities to learn, to the mainstream classroom, where they are exposed to all the advantages that nondisabled students have.

The same law applies to disabled adults. The Laconia school and similar facilities across the country were closed because an institution that warehouses people in deplorable conditions without training or educating them is not the least restrictive environment; it is the most restrictive environment. When the Nazis were sterilizing Jews in concentration camps, the Laconia State School was doing the same thing to its residents, sanctioned by state law! That is a very sobering thought. It's not sad that people were "turned loose" from the Laconia school. It's sad that New Hampshire's system of taxation does not produce enough revenue to provide support for everyone who needs it.

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by SailinAway

A legal principle of supporting people with disabilities is "least restrictive environment." If you have a child with a disability, you child will be placed in the least restrictive school environment that will meet his needs. This allowed children with disabilities to be moved from self-contained special education classrooms, where they only had contact with other disabled children and limited opportunities to learn, to the mainstream classroom, where they are exposed to all the advantages that nondisabled students have.

The same law applies to disabled adults. The Laconia school and similar facilities across the country were closed because an institution that warehouses people in deplorable conditions without training or educating them is not the least restrictive environment; it is the most restrictive environment. When the Nazis were sterilizing Jews in concentration camps, the Laconia State School was doing the same thing to its residents, sanctioned by state law! That is a very sobering thought. It's not sad that people were "turned loose" from the Laconia school. It's sad that New Hampshire's system of taxation does not produce enough revenue to provide support for everyone who needs it.

It can. It is just really the way to provide that support in a progressive means.

[Susie Cougar]

Originally Posted by SailinAway

"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.