Fading Colors

I can't imagine this was the happiest place...

how could anyone leave a loved one in a place like this

There is a state hospital very close to where I live, I used to run up on the grounds. The grounds are beautiful and peaceful but, on some occasions I would be jogging between some of the seperate buldings about 9 years ago, I could hear shrill screams comming from those buildings. Needless to say I don't run there anymore!

walked the campus many times has anyone noticed there are no sounds around there like birds or even bugs the place is totally silent.........like the tomb it is

I asked my mom today if she knew anything about Pennhurts. Turns out that my Grandma's friend's son was in there, and that she got upset when Pennhurst closed 'cause she didn't know what she was going to do with her son...why couldn't she just love him?

thats a good question? a close family friend grew up in pennhurst she had quite a few problems adjusting to life outside of those walls took her along time to get herself adjusted being as the first 27 years of her life were spent there. she was placed there as an infant never really knew who her family was...spent alot of time helping her find out information.. she now knows who she is..and really doesnt care who she was..and ironically she wont talk about what happened to her while she was there she told me i wouldnt be able to deal with it..she knows me too well i guess.........

Even when a child is loved and at home it is difficult to care for them, especially if there are siblings. My youngest son (of 4 kids) was born deaf and the strain of making sure he couldn't unlock a door and get out and run into the street, or play with the stove, etc was nerve racking for the other 5 of us as we couldn't yell at him when danger threatened. My other kids told me after they grew up they always thought Jeremy was my favorite because he got so much attention! True, deafness is not the same as retardation, but surely the same principles apply. There were times I was so exhausted all I could do was cry. When he was about 7 he finally understood running into the road could get him killed by a car, that all dogs were not friendly, that people were going to point and stare at him when he vocalized, etc. He's 21 now and works and is a joy in my life, but it was hard when he was a little boy.

I should add when Jeremy was born, my twins were 5 years old and my oldest was 7, so it was a little crazy keeping up with 4 small children. I managed though, and wouldn't trade the experiences for the world.

"I should add when Jeremy was born, my twins were 5 years old and my oldest was 7, so it was a little crazy keeping up with 4 small children. I managed though, and wouldn't trade the experiences for the world."

Wow. Much respect to you, Paulina. I'm not sure if I could've handled that.

I will offer this web site to you it is historry site that deals with mantal and devevamental problems. there is a dr. who did not believe in helping newborns that could be helped with surgeies he would let them die instead. it's called the disability history museum and it talks about the dr. and his beliefs so thank God for a place like this helped meny people . families didn't didn't know what to do so you send them away.

If I'm reading correctly, and the stories arent just mere myths..I believe that this place didnt actually "help" any of the patients. In reality they put up a facade for the families and loved ones, but while inside they experimented on them to learn about their dissabilities, and what made them that way. I'm truely fascinated with this place, its looks and also the amazing stories that come from it. Im really curious to find out what truely happened here, and why it was shut down.

Put up a facade of being something good and real? You mean, kinda like Disney? I wanna ride too!!!

[CAUTION: RANT AHEAD. Please feel free to go out for a smoke or an extra sodee pop. Or three. <G>]

Danielle,

If you want to go somewhere that they will tell you only horror stories and make you think only bad things happened here, this isn't the place. Like anywhere, then and today, staff and administration did what they could with what little they were given by you, the taxpayer, assuming you can and do vote, even for the "little crappy elections" where issues like this are usually decided - that's what "bonds" are generally for - the things that most of you vote against because it would take three more entire cents out of your tax. There were no conspiracy plots to do harm or to torture or to kill or to maim. The people who ran the place and who worked here did what they did with what little they were given by the state legislatures that were backed by the taxpayers and the voters of the United States, in this case, Pennsylvania.

I am still fascinated, however, with so many people who come here looking for evil, assuming it resides outside themselves. I believe people with such a mindset should, instead, perhaps be looking inward.

Pennhurst was shut down for the same reason all other facilities are currently being shut down and/or downsized across the world (not just the US, y'all Yankee-types <G>). People have always been uncomfortable with people who are different, and many years ago they sent them away, outside the boundaries of where the "normal" people lived. Now some people are finally coming to realize that people with disabilities are not that different from you and me, and, in a number of cases, are much nicer company than you and me and have a hell of a lot more to offer than some of us. Therefore, we in the field are trying to do away with the prejudices of the very society that asked in the first place to have these folks removed from "civilized company" and placed far away - out of sight, out of mind.

The problem is that a lot of "normal" people don't want to have these folks living among them, even today, so until we get that attitude adjusted, rather than looking at Pennhurst you really need to be looking at your own personal neighborhood and see what you and your loved ones and friends are doing to make this a reality. Otherwise my friend, I can tell you for a fact that when you are pointing that finger you are only pointing it into the mirror, at yourself and your community. This is definitely one of the places in which, if you aren't part of the solution, you are definitely part of the problem.

Now, stop pointing fingers and go out and do some good for these folks. Push your Congress to make sure group homes get funding. Go volunteer some time in a nursing home or special education class. Send some cozy socks or an extra blanket to people who don't have much and who are needy. Sponsor someone for the Special Olympics. Find a shelter or somewhere to adopt and give your time and energy and caring, and quit playing "kick the dead horse" with a place whose major sin was not receiving enough attention or money or interest from a large number of citizens and legislators of the state of Pennsylvania.

[We now return you to your regular station in which we blame everyone for the problems of Pennhurst except those people who were actually responsible.]

wow that was a long one

Did these other institutions have lawsuits against them also? I'm sure they must have. How come everyone assumes the worst at Pennhurst? Is it the bits and pieces of documentation floating around out there? Geez its ridiculous. I wish you idiots could talk to many of the parents who had children there and were GRATEFUL for the care that they got. Not every parent at Pennhurst was involved in getting it closed down. The majority didn't want it closed because they were happy with the care their child received.My aunt and I were just having a discussion about group homes the other day. One of her elderly friends was concerned about a possible group home moving across the street. I told her to tell her friend she's better off having a group home with retarded residents than taking a chance on getting a so called normal family.

THAT, my darling bdhsnake, was why I gave you a caution and told you to go have a ciggie. :-)

Just a guess here... Isn't Pennhurst the institute featured in "Suffer the Children"? I can't remember now... If people were to watch that, without really paying attention, they would assume that the things that happened here were the fault of the staff. Or, if they heard about it second hand, but didn't see it themselves, again it was the staff... What they don't realize is that all throughout that documentary, everyone (including, refreshingly, the newscaster himself) pointed out that it wasn't the fault of the staff, it was lack of funding!

Yes Suffer the Children was Pennhurst.Its funny I remember watching that when it first appeared on the news and thinking who in their right mind would ever work there? And a few years later their I was. In some respects it was the best place I ever worked and also the worst.

I <3 Lynne...

Ack! Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I am too old to know what "<3" means, unless it means "less than three". ;-)

I think it's a heart Lynn. I <3 you.

*rolls eyes*

Okay, CAS, if it isn't a heart, what is it. I think it's an ice cream cone.

It is a heart. It's not an ice cream cone. That would look more like <O.

I'm 18, and I do vote in even the little "crappy" elections. I've never been to Pennhurst but everyone knows that when you live in a small town like this and you have an abandoned building..there are going to be ghost stories and horror stories about the place. I wasnt pointing any fingers at the staff, nor saying that this place was terrible. I was saying that those are the stories I have always heard. If you scroll up to my comment the last thing i wrote was that I wanted to know what really happened. I dont think this place was bad at all, I want to hear outside of these kids' stories and talk to patients and people who used to work there. I think that this place is beautiful and mysterious and I've tried many times to get in but with the guards everywhere, and the new gates put up..I haven't found a way around it. On the other hand..I think I would much rather not disturb this place and just enjoy Motts awesome pictures :)

Hey Danielle!!! Give the guards some donuts!!!

Danielle,

Look up comments on this site by BSMarcia - she used to work there.

Thanks, I will definitly look at her comments. Lol..and I might give the guards a donut!! lol...I wonder what kind they like?

Let me preface this entire statement by saying my first job "in the field" was back in 1983 in a group home set up for people returning to York Co from Pennhurst. I was outraged at the physical condition of the people I worked with. Most of the time spent was running Dr. appointments for what should have been taken care of years before. Most of the people were on some heavy duty medications that left them "manageable". I was also outraged that families didn't give a rat's a** about their own family members. Over the year's my opinion about Pennhurst and the families has changed. I've read a lot about Pennhurst, including Superintendent's reports. I've come to the conclusion that Pennhurst (as well as most human service state run agencies) was doomed from the start. It was supposed to be the grand experiment where people would learn to become self-sufficient. It actually opened before it was supposed to and most of the buildings were not even completed or built properly. Each superintendent's report had huge lists of what was needed to make things run properly and how much it would cost. The money never came from the state and Pennhurst went downhill each year. As the money got tight, the quality of the staff went downhill because of lack of proper training, inability to consistently attract the highest quality staff due to wages and increasing burnout due to longer hours and lack of support. I'm not saying that there were not good staff there. It's just that even the best of people make mistakes when they are tired or put into situations where there is no back-up or support. Add this to the fact that the mr field historically has not been the best at research in designing programs that work. I even got to the point that I understood the stressors placed on parents who placed their sons and daughters in instutions. The education system didn't have anything positive for the kids in those days. The medical profession put a ton of pressure on the parents that this was the best thing for the child and that anything else would be cruel and inhuman. The church even got into the act by saying that these kids were God's holy innocents and that they needed to be protected from the real world. I saw how much guilt the parent's had over allowing their kids to be placed there. Well folks the same thing is happening in the group home and "sheltered workshop" system now. The state in their infinate wisdom has fairly well frozen the funding (or has graciously alllowed a 2-3% increase in funding) to run programming all the while adding new unfunded mandates to suck the lifeblood from the organization. Turnover for all agencies is at the highest level it has ever seen. I believe I read somewhere the average employee left after 6 months. Yes, there were abuses at Pennhurst and yes, abuse is still going on in the mr field. People need to learn the lessons of Pennhurst and the lessons of the present system and grow. Sorry for the long rant.

Thank you Franco for your insight. I think it's great that you've done research on Pennhurst and have a better understanding of how things were. It's funny that you felt the clients that came to you were heavily medicated because most had their meds cut drastically before leaving. And physically they were in such bad shape? Having worked day shift for a few years I know that Drs. appointments were an everyday occurrence. So that strikes me as odd. I could tell you of clients that left for group homes that did not receive as good medical care and didn't live very long on the outside.

BSMarcia. I certainly would not deny that there are lousy group home agencies. The first agency I worked for in 1983 eventually lost their contracts for the group homes (only after many employees left the agency and made their comments to MH/MR). In the year I was there (I switched to the agency that was running their day program) I remember countless Dr. appointments in which the Dr stated "this should have been taken care of years ago". Every one of the people I worked with had their meds drastically reduced by the end of the first year. That is really scary after what you said about their meds being drastically reduced before leaving Pennhurst. I know that the main reason the meds were reduced was because the head resident advisor (or whatever we were called in those days) was a great advocate for the people and pushed the Drs. when they didn't want to do a thorough job. I know that not every group home had a leader like her. I am not going to say that everyone who left Pennhurst had as many problems as the people I worked with but I know the people I worked with. I am not really damning Pennhurst/Pennhurst staff as I am damning the MR system as a whole. It is just as screwed up today as it was when Pennhurst was closed. Please don't take it personally as I have been part of the same system for the past 22 years.

Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. I'm not doubting you at all. I know that clients were over medicated to keep things under some control. And I'm sure with smaller numbers to take care of you probably were able to implement programs to curb those behaviors. No arguemnet there. I guess I was just wandering what medical problems could have been taken care of years earlier. I still believe the medical care they received was pretty good. Hey, I commend you for being able to stay 22 years in this field of work. It's a thankless job, no doubt. I had enough after 11 years.

I used to work there when i was 18 years old. i can tell you this. i was frightened, both for myself and for the residents who lived there. These people were treated horribly by those who were hired to help them. I remember one aide who heated a key on a hotplate and placed it on a resident's back! The screams were horrible. i told another nurse what had happened and i was advised to keep my mouth shut if i wanted to keep my job. i had asked for a transfer to another ward. i got that. I ended up in T2. frightening ward. conditions were horrible. urine and feces on the floor. residents walking about in straight jackets in padded cells. don't turn your back, you could be bitten. Then i went to another ward with the women. they weren't treated very nicely either. Most times they undressed themselves and during their monthly cycles some would throw their soiled napkins. i remember one threw hers at one of the nurses. The nurse slapped her hard across the face and shoved it in her mouth! she was a large rather intimidating black woman . she saw me staring at her and she said what are you looking at? i aint taking this shit from nobody! you got something to say? I was so scared of her. I went to one of the supervisors to report some of the stuff I had seen. I was fired less than 3 days later. Reason? They said i wasn't cooperating as a team member. a lot of the people who resided there should not have been there. when visitors were expoected, everything was different. residents were dressed, straight jackets removed, place was cleaned, smells removed. i hated working there!

i'm gonna have to support danielle on this one...being 24 living in this area i know pennhurst is just old building falling apart and its just fun to expore...but back when i was 14, 15 and so on it was so much more fun exporing these areas knowing the dangers of ghost and what nut...thats what made it exciting...thats what makes you really wanna go,..to prove that those are just stories...its just a thrill...why go to a haunted house when you know its just ghst stories?

my mom's dad's dad (so my great grandfather) was there for 36 years and was never written about in any medical reports i've seen (and i do keep track: 4,346 so far) and there are no dates of birth or death on his headstone in the memorial graveyard. an autopsy was performed, and he died of starvation and cancerous growths were found by his cerebellum inhibiting his motor regulations and speech. (record #2097500989)

My mom and dad worked there for part of one summer while they were in college back in the late 1970's. My dad's mom also worked there for a bit at the same time and the few stories they told me are quite frightening. I don't know what area they worked in, but my mom told me that there were several times she was terrified of the patients. They would lose thier temper and sometimes hit the workers. She said she saw many patients that had to be sedated b/c of attacking another patient or a worker. My mom quit after working there for a few weeks after she saw another female employee badly attacked by a patient.

Such a sad place with such a sad history.
This was a diaster from begining to end.
Too bad for the souls who are still trapped there.

I just wanted to thank everyone for there comments in these threads about Pennhurst. They are all interesting to read. Esp. from the people that used to work there. They are all enlightening and some of the things that have occured at Pennhurst & many others like it is truely as shame & disgrace. Maybe some people were worse off than others & maybe some should not have ever been put in these places but to not be treated like a person & just some animal is horrible. Now I'm not saying this is what happend here or other places but if they did it is sad.......if we do not learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them......

This looks like the Haunted Mansion at Disney World, or the Rose Red house from Stephen King's movie, it also looks like a movie poster or Halloween card! VERY ELEGANT AND EVIL AT THE SAME TIME! just FRIGHTENING!

My Grandmother worked there for almost 30 years and my mother started working there after she turned 17. My grandmother quit when it go so bad that the "patients" were having sex and she was not alloweed to stop it. She brought home 2 children every chirstmas and on holidays because they really were not "retarded" in the general sence......they just couldnt read and write and their IQ was about 69. They got worse from being in that place.

this is sooo pretty
i love old places like this :)

I, too, am glad all viewpoints are being spilled about this place, especially by it's former workers. Thankyou for telling your stories. Again, bad things happen, and it's important to acknowledge them and admit they happened rather than taking such strong personal offense to these particular stories, to those of you in the medical field... and again, don't worry. Most of us outside that field DO realize what you do is important and flat-out heroic. However, we can't let the past so unrecognized. What's that about "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it"?

How could someone help with a problem no one truly understood these ppl wernt treated badly out of hate they were not understood how can a care giver teach a child with a disability when their caregiver them self didnt understand the the problem these people who worked there did what they could with what they had they were not funded properly so yes they were fed but not properly because they didnt have the funds yes they were bathed but not as much as the proberly should have been with lack of staff the world gave up on the people of pennhurst because they were not understood parents didnt have the understanding and suport that we have today parents thought they were helping their child by putting them there but what i dont understand everyone says the parents prob didnt know what the conditions were like in the ward i understand that but how come most of these parents just left their kids there they never visted them they abandoned them so all in all the parents were more then likely ashamed back then not understanding and the way the rest of the world looked at a problem it was better to hide it away and forget about it so i dont just blame pennhurst because pennhurst was not built to be a problem it was built to help and understand but no one had the education about disabilities that we have today i blame the parents for giving up on their children and forgetting them i blame the state for not funding if they had the funding and the parents and communities help would they have suffered probably not even though they may not have understood the problem they would have been able to feed them and aducate them as well as possible and with the parents help but back then no one wanted to learn or spend money it was easier to forget and throw the key away.. i am drawn to pennhurts i watched my nana die from her disabilities that know one understood we took great care of her but if we would have known then what we know now im not saying she'd still be alive but i do believe she wouldnt have passed so soon i understand the probelm with them not having the funding but why wouldnt know one fund i understand being scared of something you dont understand but why wouldnt a parent take the time to learn about it instead of ignoring it there are so many things i dont understand and so many people i would love to talk to. we were tough people with retardations were no diffrenet then us back then they were tought its not normal its not right we need to get rid of them we might not understand it today but then thats the way it was so yes its not right these people should not have been treated the way they were but back then thats how they understood things and took care of things i am happy that we know where these disabilites come from how to help them and work with them i am happy we dont hide them in shame i have three kids non with any problems but as a parent i am always ready for what may come i would never be ashamed of my children my daughter is adhd but i will not medicate her i have all the time in the world and patiants to deal with her and teach her what she needs to learn yes she does act un exceptable at times but i would never hide her from the world how will she ever learn how to act if shes not seeing it with her own eyes its just so hard to believe that a person could be ashamed of their child enough where they give up on them i dont understand that that is your baby your child your life how could you do such a thing i dunno i guess i have issues and i am going to post this it probably doesnt make any sense but this is how i feel
!!

wow you can delete that i didnt realize it was so long sorry