Daily Schedule

Absolutely fascinating...

I can smell the mustiness just looking at the picture

All that history sitting there - makes me depressed. They need to be archiving and preserving that stuff.

THAT BOOK IS ALMOST CONSIDERED AN ANTIQUE.

How interesting. Motts, I bet you don't come across folders this old very often, huh?

Motts, how do you do it??? I could not control myself, I know it is wrong but I would have taken one( I know I know, its stealing)

What i often do is i borrow stuff like that and then return it to its rightfull place when im done. Like a library.

yeah i would have taken some too. i mean, the 1900s? man that would be an awesome keepsake.

Excellent find, Motts!

Man! I wish you would have taken a pic of the inside!!

This reminds me (for some reason) of the slang staff used at Belchertown State School: when we checked the wards at night, we were "tripping" the wards; if we had to cover a shift at some building we didn't normally work at we "floated" to that building. I'm sure there's more slang, but I can't recall it (too much tripping and floating?) I wonder if that was just BSS slang or if it was used at most state institutions. Anyone know?

Yeah it's typical slang used in most Mass. state hospitals. At least it is at the one I work at currently, and also at the one I used to work at DSH

If a resident became agitated or disturbed by acting out in some manner what would you call it?At Pennhurst it was" going off the head" Was that term used there?

"Floating" is still used.

Became agitated and assaultive, or, Became self abusive. Our log books were meant to be read by the oncoming shift. Not everyone would have approved of " going off the head."

If someone at BSS became agitated or violent they were "flipping out", and sometimes were put "in the doghouse " (which was a seclusion room). (Terrible !) The people living at BSS used to refer to sex as "playing house". That seemed to be there own slang term... probably learned from very supressed staff.

Lynn, do you "trip the wards"?

So motts;
how much trouble would you be in if you got cought taking that? (beings that it's so old)
And i'm assuming that you probebly had to have permission to go in those places.
I think its great that you are able to.
The mental hospital that i work at has old abandonded buildings on the grounds. (it's well over 100 years old)
They don't let anyone take photos of them though as we house inmates from jail in one of the remodeled ones.
I've been told it's a privacy issue.
Too bad though. The old Goveners mansion has a italian marble staircase in it. It is beautiful.
Too bad no one else can enjoy it.

Motts too bad this doesnt have a spell check. I could use it. I'm sick of having to look words up, and people are getting sick of me asking them. :-)
HA! HA! HA! phonics!

isabeats,

Is "tripping" the same as "doing bed checks"?

It wasn't written in the log books it was staff lingo. It was frowned upon by supervisors to even say it. But it was a term that was around for a long time evidently.

Lynn- Yes. I worked 3-11PM, and just before the overnight ("third") shift came on, we'd go through each ward, changing any wet bedding, escorting certain people to the bathrooms, etc. We were "tripping"! And sometimes I got to "trip" in a building I had "floated" to.

OK, third shift generally does the "bed checks" I was referring to. They have to check each person on the living every half hour to make sure they are OK (and record that they made this check). It's a difficult task because you want to get in the room quietly without turning on the lights (usually need to use a flashlight or the hall light, which is dimmed), make sure each person is breathing and isn't tangled in clothes or bedding, hasn't fallen out of bed, hasn't eaten anything s/he isn't supposed to eat (bedding, leisure items, etc.), doesn't look like they have a fever, hasn't received an injury of some sort due to seizures, self-injurious behavior, etc., the covers are where they need to be, etc., and if the person has become wet or soiled him/herself you need to assist in getting him/her to the bathroom and changed, while then going back and changing the bedding. Third shift also folds the bags and bags of laundry that come back to the living area and places the folded laundry in each person's bedroom (quietly, without waking them) and the linens and towels in the linen room, cleans the furniture (and in some places does all the mopping and cleaning for the living area), does charting, files all the paperwork that needs filed, escorts anyone to the bathroom who needs to go, and deals with anyone who is up and about because they have sleep problems (which is approximately 1/4 of our folks). They then get everyone dressed before first shift comes in and get breakfast set up.
It is easily one of the most under-appreciated, most unsung, yet most important jobs in the history of healthcare. Yet third shift staff are routinely called "weird" because they work an unusual shift.
Go figure.
Any place where people with severe to profound disabilities live, whether it is a large residential facility, group home, or private home, cannot function without third shift. THESE people are the backbone of the healthcare system.

Sounds like a routine night that I had at Pennhurst, Lynn. That is when I wasn't beating and maiming my charges.

WAWAWAWAWA!!!!! 8`-)

Yeah, one day we'll have to tell them we really WERE murdering bastards after all, huh? 8`-)

These people scare me, Marcia. They want blood and guts to clear up the guilt they seem to feel for their people not voting to give money to take care of the people you and I actually took physical care of. Funny world, huh?

Makes ya feel kinda like the witches on trial in Salem musta felt. Whatever evidence is brought up they use it against you - same evidence, different interpretation. Throw 'em in the river - if they don't drown, they are witches and need to be burned. If they drown, oops! They musta not been witches after all! Our bad!

The main reason I chose 3rd shift was there was less supervisory staff breathing down your neck. It got very bad for staff in the closing years. You could not believe the things you could be written up for. Thank god for the union we had . That was the only protection we had.

I wish my work allowed unions.

"Going off," or "Going off the head," were terms that the kids used in the home for troubled youth where I taught. They all did it pretty regularly too.

Motts, you have to take one of those documents, especially when there are many of them just lying there. Don't they just throw this stuff out when the knock down a building?

I greatly admire and appreciate Mr. Motts' ethical stand (as well as legal respect) for the documents left behind in such places. I remember how facinated I was when I began legal medical research pre-graduate school--but, it can become quite monotonous. Not that it is boring, but medical charts are curious things. I just cannot justify removing anything from these sites.

Absolutely amazing. These types of things should be swooped up by the local historical society and not packed up in some Joe Shmo's basement. Wonderful find Motts! Hopefully these pieces of history will find a proper home for all to see.

wow that is so cool i love antiques! i would sit for hours and look through all that stuff!

I am sitting for hours looking at this website!

Lynne, time and time again, thank you for your very interesting and informational peek into the lives of the often unsung and under-appreciated hospital caretaker.

Sooo incredibly interesting!

Looking at these photos makes me think of the sharp contrast between the institutions of yester year and "treatment center" of today....My great aunt had Alzheimers back in the mid 60's and no one knew what it was, she was relativley young, for that disease, 50's i beleive, late 40's, she was committed to Marlboro Phsyciatric Hospital in Marlboro NJ. Its very infamous in my area, my Grandma tells me stories of how her sister in law was in a highchair fpr adults, and in a padded room in a strait jacket! We talk about these things from time to time, as my own mother suffers from mental illness(manic depressive, ocd...etc...) She DOES get hospitalized from time to time, but where she goes is really nice, its hopital ish, but nice. They have the tv room, crafts, snack bars and its very nice and the staff is so cool and friendly, you would ever even know that half the people there are either addicts or paranoid schizophrenics...

I know that if I was exploring some of the sites Motts has, and came across items like this, I would have a hard time restraining my urge to "pick up a little something" as a keepsake. Though I agree with him that the risk isn't worth it. Still it would be pretty tempting at times.

I am sure that as you said Motts, the daily schedules and such would be pretty dull reading, but what has always bothered me when looking through some of the galleries is the obvious lack of care a lot of these schools, hospitals and instituations seemed to have when it came to patient's records. There are any number of photos you have in the various galleries that show cases in which patient's medical records were just left behind when a site was closed down, seemingly without any care or concern for the privacy of those people who's histories were contained in those files.

There are a lot of people out there who don't show the restraint Motts does when it comes to "raiding" abandoned sites for souveniers, and I know I would hate to have been a former patient or family member of a patient and had to face the knowledge that my personal medical or mental health history could easily end up in the hands of someone out there who had no legal and certainly no ethical right to it.

I just don't understand how they can get away with just leaving sensitive files like that laying around. Aren't there legal and professional obligations and rules requiring these places to protect the privacy of their patients???

Does anyone know where i can find a vintage or antique straight jacket? I would love to find one. PLEASE HELP!!!!
THANK YOU...

i hope and pray these things some how some way get saved in state or city records!

Those things are almost 100 years old! For gods sake they honestly belong in a museum, not hanging around an old building just waiting to rot. :/

I could sit and read stuff like that all day. I did get the chance to explore and an abandoned house about 15 years ago. My cousin and I sat down and read all the documents left on the floor. Didnt take anything, just sat and read.

man, I love old buildings!

I'm torn between my instincts as a historian and my belief in privacy. If they go anywhere it should be a hisotical society or the Smithsonian/National Archives ... they are old enough that the right to privacy isn't as relevant.

id sit for hours going thru all of this...very interesting pics,,thank you so much!!