Arrangement

Were these adult size cribs or a child's ward? Sad to think kids were in here. Well sad to think anyone had to be in here, but kids pull a definite heart string.

Nice big window though.. There have been cots in darker places.

Kinda look like they are adult sized

great photo

Oh man to end up in one of those.
Maybe it was for their benefit however.
Still...

I can't imagine a world with so many institutions housing the sick. While these places become relics, what happened to the inhabitants? Once they were too sick to walk the streets, but now due to financial issues become faces in the crowd. In this area (West) many of the state hospitals just released the patients out into the general public when budget cuts forced hospitals to close.

Misty: I often wonder what has happend to many of the patients in these places as well....its very sad to think about. I'm sure some of them had no where to go....To many of them that was there only home. It really does make one think doesn't it......

I thought they were cribs, they dont even look adult sized

Many of the former patients of these places are mostly homeless today. These hospitals were shut down because it was felt that "community based" care would be better, when a majority of communities didn't have any sort programs or anything in place. Most still don't.

In OH they were discharged to the streets. We live in the county seat and many of them end up here because the social services that they need are in our town. They live in boarding hotels or on the street. They intimidate some of the citizens, because they walk about talking to themselves. Some make very large hand gestures which some interpret as agressive. These places were bad, but I have to believe homeless is worse. Anybody wonder what the new "health care" will do for these folks?

As bad as these places were its worse for them to be out in the streets with no food or shelter

Mental health should be as important as physical health care, in fact they should be hand in hand, because one sure effects the other!

Some are homeless, others went into "residential" homes with other people who can't take care of themselves and the rest I imagine just walk among us. It was a shame that they de-institutionalized these places because yes, they did cause a lot of people to become "displaced". And for what? Just to let the buildings remain empty and rot. Seems to me they could have made better decisions so that so many people weren't effected. As for these cribs, they're pretty neat, I would sleep in one!! (with a fresh mattress of course)

You also have to remember that alot of these place were closed because of the physical, mental, and sexual abuse that was inflicted on the patients by members of the staff.

When Dixmont State Hospital closed here in the Pittsburgh area, the patients were just released into the streets. They are everywhere downtown trying to live the best they can on the streets. Most of them are a little scary to walk past, talking to themselves; screaming and arguing with themselves on the street corner. It's kinda sad, really.

They only want to commit people that are a danger to themselves for others. The goal is to move people up to the level to be able to live in the least restrictive setting. Only when they closed down facilities did they realize how short of housing they were for these people.

I agree with most of the above statements but remember not all staff members were abusive. I would estimate that about 80% of the homeless you see today have/had some sort of psychiatric illness or issue. Sad but true to quote Metallica. I would also quess that the adult cribs were for those who were very chronically ill or perhaps even severly retarded.

oh my gosh... think about being put in one of those as an adult...
it would be like being transported back to infancy... except all the stuffed animals and toys and comfort objects have been taken away...

its so terrible that so many of those people were turned out into the streets. many of them actually end up in prisons because they break laws and don't know any better. i really think places like this should still be running...with better treatment of course.

Thanks to many highly publisised and mainly negitive investigations into the running of the old "asylum" style hospitals and the subsequent "community care" programmes, all of the good work that took place in these hospitals has been forgotten. They often provided the only home that some of the residents had ever experienced. More often that not the care given was the best the nurses could provide given the lack input mental health services get. Unfortunately there were a lot of people detained in hospitals (somestimes for things like disobeying parents or having children out of wedlock) who didn't need to be there, but there were also just as many people who did need the security and acceptance that came with these facilities. I live near an abandoned victorian institution in England. The grounds are beautiful and tranquil and the perfect place to retreat from the stigma and cruelty of the world. There is a church and graveyard on the grounds which has a section for the "community patients" - being the people who died following discharge to the community and had no family. The number of suicides in the area also increased following the discharges as a result of closure. I find that incredibly telling - these hospitals had a place. Maybe on a smaller scale and monitored more closely to protect the patients, but still necessary.

BTW - these photo's are amongst the most beautiful I have seen. I have spent hours looking at them, and reading the discussions. I just find it sad that people are so facinated and excited by the idea of mistreatment and degradation of the poor souls who lived here.