Baby Bottles

OMG how sad is that !!

Anna,
My thoughts exactly!
Makes me realize, while I am very much enjoying these shots --- pictues like these remind me that these places existed because people were ill, sometimes an embarassment to the family and abandoned there . Puts it all back into prespective for me. Thank you Motts.

yes, thank you Motts

I can't stand watching those baby items and beds...it's sad and terrible beyond belief.Powerful shot

this one really makes me want to cry.........a powerful emotional picture

Just sad how things were back then.

Y'know. We consistently touch on the "patients", but what about the people who worked there? What ran through their minds?

Well, from the comments I have read, it looks as if the vote is 187 to 3 that we were all torturers and sadists. And we strapped everyone into anything that wasn't moving. :-)

Sometimes I think that everyone who works in institutional settings should take the day off and let those who are critical come in and work a shift, plus the mandatory overtime that direct care are so often compelled to work when they least expect it (like the day of their child's first birthday party or their only child's high school graduation). 'Course, I'm not sure how many of our clients would still be alive at the end of the day because this is extremely specialized and difficult work, and I am sure the population of the MI facilities would double overnight from the stress brought on by working in our facilities for that one shift.

Swear to God people (Ooooh! I'm getting religious again!) - work a shift, volunteer a shift, spend some time in a nursing home or other live-in setting - your perspective will change very quickly. Your compassion and admiration for the (majority of) staff will increase and your feelings about the people who live here will change from one-note simplistic pity into something more. A true client advocate spends as much time advocating for staff as they do advocating for the clients, because many people who live in institutional settings are there because they can not live without the assistance of someone else. Plus that extra set of eyeballs would help us deal with those few staff who ARE abusive.

Twug, thank you for thinking about staff. I lubs my staff almost as much as I love my clients.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is a powerfully moving photograph.

Lynne - my husband is a psych nurse. I agree with every comment you have made.

VERY NICE LYNNE, CHEERS! I READ SOMEWHERE SOME STATS ON NSH THAT SAID THROUGHOUT ITS HISTORY, THE BEST CARETAKERS WERE EX PATIENTS. I DON'T FIND THIS HARD TO BELIEVE.

great comments lynne (as usual) as the saying goes, walk a mile in my shoes.....

It's really sad

Sadness of this picture is that they were babies small helpless little lives that were put here , they had no choice. Staff choose their position

Which is why I adore the staff even more. They could get a job with equal pay and better hours at a 7-11 but they choose to work here to take care of folks who need assistance just to get by day by day. My admiration for the people who choose to do this is boundless.

seeing these children's things reminds me of my own childhood, scary, yet almost seems normal because i never knew any other way when i was a child, being institutionalized sucks

this photo just makes me feel disgust for ppl keeping their children here. how could u think an infant is insane?!

think it through. Patients may have had babies at the time of treatment.?.

A developmental center is not the same as a psychiatric facility.

If I could i would take all those babies and give them all my love.
Lynn, you must be a pretty spectacular person to work in such a place, I know i wouldn't last 5 minutes, it would just break my heart. The last time i volunteered at anything was when i was 12 and i went to an old peope's home to keep some of them company for the afternoon. while i was there an old lady died and it was almost a physical pain. she shouted for her husband (who had been dead for 40 years) said "there you are" and went. I haven't done it since, i thought it was best due to the fact that i find it very easy to form an emotional attachment with anyone i meet.
Like you for instance, you can bet your last penny that you will stick in my head for whatever reason because of the work you do and it's pretty much guaranteed that i will tell some family member or friend about the stuff you do and say on this site!

This is such a SAD picture. Regardless of the handicap, there is NOTHING like a GOOD Mother's love. Every child needs to be held and given attention , and shown love in order to thrive properly. And yes, I commend anyone who works with the handicapped; whether it's the elderly, mental problems, or anyhting. Just like working in forensics or anything like that; it takes a special person to be able to do different things. Some people could and some people couldn't.

Why assume because there are left over baby bottles that there was mistreatment of babies, I don't get the connection.

Trans. Med. I agree with you on some part. Those bottles could have just been used to actually feed some of the older patients who just couldnt eat normally and needed extra care, I guess by the means of baby bottle fed? possibly? But then again it WOULD make more sense of there were babies there because they ARE BabY Bottles.

But anyway, FABULOUS picture. I hope to learn these techiniques and taks pictures that are just as amazing someday =]

fantistic a walk down memory especially whittingham hospital where i trained as a psychiatric nurse over 33years ago

wonderfull i can t get enough of these photosi would love to visit it again this might be a fantancy as i now live in bermuda

Wow! bottles from the mid 70's to early 80's.

Pics like this make me see how much of a monster asylums are. :(

haunting

I can't see how babies would get referred to an institution, which would require a very sophisticated early diagnosis.

Those look like dishwasher trays to me, not crates.

Babies do get put into institutions. It happens less now because of other options and the lack of facilities that care for babies. Babies aren't usually put into an institution because of lack of love. They are put there out of love. I am going to tell you in as few words as possible what I mean. A little over eighteen years ago I was a very young single mother with a newborn baby girl. Ultrasounds during my pregnancy revealed that her brain had developed differently than most. She had what is know as agenesis of the corpus callosum and it is rare without much known about it. Probably the most famous person with this condition is Kim Peek (or the real life Rain Man). I was young, single and with my whole life ahead of me when they handed me this baby and told me they didn't even know if she would know who I was. They recommended immediate placement in an institution. I looked at my baby and decided to take her home and do whatever I could for as long as I could. That was my decision. However, I had parents that where there for me. Maybe without them I couldn't have done it. She has many problems but is far more independent than they predicted. There will come a day when I can't take care of her any more. And in that day I will be thankful that there are people who chose to take care of those that can't take care of themselves. I took her home because I had a family that could help me. If I had been all alone I may not have been able to do it. Thank God there are people who will give of themselves to the babies who need more than their birth mothers can give. A mother's love doesn't always come from just one heart. Sometimes it comes from a combination of many hearts working together.

Beautifully said Mayme! And thank you, too, Lynne!

LOVE you, AMM - beautifully said! Tony too!

XXXOOO

Pictures like this really hit hard when you see them. This picture makes my heart feel heavy.

People out there that have big enough hearts to love another's babe is a hero in my eyes. My real mom was only 15 when she had me, and i was that close to being "given up" or "institutionalized". Heck ,she just handed me literally out the front door to some people, and it took the state 6 months to find me. :(

Lynne..

*STANDING OVATION *

I have a friend who works at a county nursing home/mental health facility here in NJ( a facility which I will not mention but which has a pretty bad rep here in Northern NJ). The bad rep is due to MANY of the reasons you mentioned: no money, low paying jobs, understaffing, ect.
My friend works as an activity aide/CNA and her patients( be they the geriatric patients or the MH patients) are her world. Although she freely admits that there are gross instances of neglect and wrongdoing, in the main, everyone cares about the residents and patients and tries to do what they can to brighten lives. (As is so often the case many of these people are without families and have been here for years. This is one of the largest hospitals in NJ and since the closing of the majority of state hospital beds, it has been pressed into service to care for the remaining long-term psych patients who cannot function in a group home setting)

LadyMaggie
Who plans to put her money where her loquatious mouth is and volunteer @ said facility in the near future

Forgot to add that my friend barely makes $10/hr( and she spent over 2 grand to get her CNA)

Another former friend of mine worked as an aide to a CP client and was making $9.50/hr no benefits or sick days and working very erratic and overwhelming hrs.

Had I seen these photos before my daughter was born, it would have weighed heavily on me...but now that I am a parent, it makes me feel dark and ill. I thank God every day that mine was born healthy and is happy.

there is something so sad about this picture:(

The nerve of the staff at this place to actually feed the babies. Grrrrrr... (I am shaking my fist in a very sarcastic manner).
You would find the same thing at any hospital today, although I hope it would be a little cleaner and wouldn't have Mr. Motts cool lighting!

it jus puts it all into context, that this way a real working place and all these chairs and other objects were used of a daily basis at some point and now they sit there waiting ti be used again.

disturbing yet beautiful.

Nice put-out Lynne! But I don't know....wait! Yes I do. But I'm just a kid....nevermind. I'll try working in a MI when I grow up. Ha.

Teacher: What do u wanna be when you grow up?
Me: A staff in a mental institute!!! XD *happy dance*
Teacher: 0.o ....wtf?

hi there i love ur pix there great i been to this place very scarry i go day and night dont know y i like to shoot this stuff just do but it does make me sad i wonder about these people and where thay are now............

I am obsessed with baby bottles. if you wanna know why I have two pictures of me drinking milk out of a baby bottle, taken by my older cousin 15 years ago. I still have those pictures. Ahhh, the memories...

(I love horsies too, it's SO adorable to see photos of people bottle-feeding a foal.)

I wonder what became of the 'Fuller State School' babies...

How sad :(

Hi STL girl horsies are awesome, and the pictures I mentioned were of ME with a bottle in MY mouth, not a horse's.

Im gonna cry again! *cries*

I was going to leave the comments about the evil/good aspects of psychiatric care to others, as I'm not in the field nor here to cast judgement in any way... however, I feel compelled to add my own blurb at this point. To Lynne and others who dedicate their lives so completely to this care, endless appreciation. Do not be offended by remarks made regarding medical care in the past. Throughout history almost everywhere, treatments for all sorts of ailments, physical and mental, could in fact be quite hellatious and unthinkable by modern standards. Doctors doubled as barbers and kept leeches in jars next to the combs, for purposes such as "bleeding" a client to stop his nightmares, for example, in the Middle Ages. Well into the last century, strange, ineffective, and unintentionally harmful treatments were not only de rigeuer, but all we knew. Here's to progress and to systems diagnostic, logistical, medical and preventative improving to the point today in which we have Lynnes out there to care for our fellow man.

well said gypsy

spent my childhood in hospitals for weeks and months at a time because of my genetic issues. caregivers have tremendous power over children in these settings. however even more so in the 70's when "visiting hours" were enforced and parents were not particularly informed about the treatment the child received. my mother had 7 more children and could rarely visit me because children under 12 were not allowed (i was the otdest) the aqua colored tiles are like memory triggers. like peering into the past,...