Ward

This is what the dormitories were like , with beds in each alcove formed by the walls. 80 women slept there when they could sleep, and weren't walking the floor or crying through the night. When the nurses went downstairs in the morning, and the patients escorted by aides to the group showers, 2 aides would strip the sheets from the beds and tie them into huge bundles for the laundry. Sometimes, a few patients would help.

Bed after bed was puddled with urine. The odor was choking. The mattresses had to be wiped down and sprayed with disinfectant. Clean sheets put on. Thin blankets were pulled up over the sheets, and a deodorizing disinfectant sprayed in the room. When all the bundles of dirty sheets were assembled, the aides had to pull them down the stairs. Two people had to handle each bundle, they were that heavy. Wet, stinking bundles.

I don't want to minimize the conditions at Byberry, but this ward does not look as if it were all that horrible in its heyday. WIth filth, falling plaster, and graffiti all over the place now, it does look terrible in this photo. Imagining it clean and well-lit paints a different picture.

I'd like to read any other info you've got on this institution, Motts.

I've seen the Byberry grounds in person, but I've been reading everything I can find online.

theere were slightly more arefully made pen wards of the same style at met state hospital, but theyre gone now

i worked there in late '70-early '80 lots of abuse to patients from staff in the underground passageways and from other patients frequently ignored ..... medical care left alot to be deisred ...were still doing electric shock but frontal labodimies done in new orleans only at taht time

Rita, you obviously havent spent time in a place like this and if you did im sure you would be too busy planning escape, off your head on drugs or trying to slit your wrists with a small piece of plastic you stole from the crafts room to notice the nice texture and glossy look on the walls.

if I'm correct this is prabably somewhere in W-7

This really needs to be the setting of a horror movie. I would totally watch it cuz it just looks like the perfect place to add a psycho-path and a killing scene. I know this sounds kinda mean for such a sad, depressing place but wouldn't it make a great horror film?

I just found out my grandmother was admitted to this hell hole. I pray she got out. Haven't found her yet

Which building was this?

W-6

If it was SO horrible why didn't you or your family take a job there and help? Too much for you? It's alot easier to take pictures and fabricate "stories".

Does anyone have photos of the Kettle Bldg? My grandmother worked there for years. Also is there a cemetary on site?
Your photos draw one in and make you wonder!

The abuse they endured is enraging. That's why we shouldn't ostrcize people with mental issues. Seems to happen because no one is paying attention. There's more inspections and safety gaurds these days. I think. Been There Worked There, what's your take on how the place treated people?

I think that is the W6 dorm.

This picture evokes very "industrial" feelings...

They had a Hitachi crane eat the walls out of W3

There were four beds to a cubical. This is one of the older ones where the patients needed observation. Most had been changed to rooms with no door and the half walls were then walls. You entered an access hallway which had two doors for privacy with no view of the rooms themselves. Each bed had a large standing locker so that when you were sleeping you couldn't see your neighbor. As for Urine and walking and crying, if someone was upset they usually were taken by staff to the main area to the nurses station or the dayroom where they would have staff one on one with them and be offered something for sleep or to help with the upset.

How do I know? I worked nights. The only units that had problems with having to change the sheets in the morning were two. One was low functioning MR clients who were in a 'residual unit' because they had to many issues [violence] to be in an MR program. They frankly didn't want them. And the Geri unit and if you ever worked a nursing home, you change beds in the middle of the night, morning, afternoon, evening, you name it. It goes with the territory. Was there abuse? Oh yeah but by the 80s it wasn't the 40s style. How do I know? I was one of the ones who reported it to the state.

some people do not understand what some others know because they have been in state hospitals.. i never have been but i could imagine

This room brings back memories for me. I worked in the Admission Unit during my psych rotation in nursing school at Byberry in the summer of 1978 . Each patient had a bed and locker. We heard stories of the disruptions that would occur at night in these wards. Glad to say the only allowed nursing students to work during the day!

Worked at Byberry for 2 weeks as a nurse in 1985. No idea what building. Only recall it was both male and female young adults. The nurse's station was surrounded by chicken wire. The nurse's rarely left the station unless they had to give meds via a half door in the medication room or stand around as security in the cafeteria. It was scary. The patient's were constantly fighting which you had to break up or were restrained with body nets: hence, why I only lasted two weeks. I remember the dorms and the general darkness of the place as a whole. It was a creepy environment. I do recall that the staff ( who had been there a long time) seemed to enjoy tantalizing the patient's from behind the chicken wire at the nurse's station. It was a totally dysfunctional scene which I didn't want to be a part of so I exited ASAP. It wasn't "care" at all. It was something totally warped.

its very inviting to sleep looks comfy

the only thing I can SAy Is this dosent seem rite to me... it looks like little cobbies

i currently work at a state hospital and, though mental health practices have come a long way, these facilities leave much to be desired. as RN said back in April 09, the staff thoroughly enjoys antagonizing the patients. as an individual who is a huge advocate for patient rights, i hate to admit that i can understand completely how it happens. when dealing with almost thirty people with severe mental illnesses day in and day out, it's hard not to let it get to you - not to take it personally. i have a background in psychology but i make up a small fraction of state hospital employees with any higher education. the state hires people who have no experience or background in psychology and they expect them to be equipped to handle individuals who are extremely hostile, delusional, and paranoid on a regular basis. it's human to take things personally and to abuse power. on top of that the wages are small, and the orientation and training is a joke. do i like it? no. do i agree with it? no. do i rise above? yes. but can i understand why the aides and other staff do not? yes. they don't know any better. who do you blame? the people who are clearly abusing their power and forgetting that the people they're "caring" for are ill ... or the government for not handling the hiring/training process more carefully?

You know what's really sad? Listening to Billy Joel's, "everybody has a dream" while looking at places like this because it makes me think that there were people in the institutes who lived there their entire lives, and they dreamed.....but never fulfilled them because they were cooped up here all their lives...