Cherokee State Hospital

History

[edit]Early years

As early as 1890, a movement was begun to build a fourth mental hospital in the state and northwest Iowa was the logical location for it. The plan was to relieve crowding from the other hospitals in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Clarinda, Iowa, Independence, Iowa, In 1894, Cherokee residents started an active campaign to get the legislature to select their city for the new hospital. Many other northwest Iowa towns also vied for the hospital, including Sheldon, LeMars, Fort Dodge, Storm Lake and "Pocahontas Center". It took 14 ballots in the legislature to give Cherokee the hospital. The legislature appropriated $12,000 to purchase a site, but it was 6½ years after the first excavation before the administration building, sitting on bare prairie land, was ready for occupancy. There was a struggle each session of the legislature to get appropriations to continue with the building. The original plan for patients was to hold alcoholics, geriactrics, drug addicts, the mentally-ill, and the criminally-insane.

The hospital was opened for patients on August 15, 1902 under the name Cherokee Lunatic Asylum. The name changed several times over the years, going from Iowa Lunatic Asylum to Cherokee State Hospital. The first Superintendent, Dr. N. Nelson Voldeng, worked all the summer to equip and ready it for 700 patients. From August 15 to August 26, eight patients were admitted. On August 26, 1902, 306 patients were transferred from Independence and two days later 252 from Clarinda. These patients were brought by special trainsand met with teams and hayracks at the end of the Illinois Central Railroad spur and transported to the hospital. The dormitory for employees, built in the 1940s was named Wirth Hall in 1962 for the late J.E. Wirth, business manager here many years. The early years were dark and brutal for the patients.

[edit]Later developments

Over the years, a significant change has occurred in the patient/staff ratio and employee salaries/benefits. In 1910, 81 persons were employed in the nursing service department, caring for 881 patients. These employees worked 12 to 14 hours per day, with one half-day off per week, for a base salary of $24.00 to $30.00 per month, plus room and board. Most of the living quarters were located in the wards where the patients also resided.

Beginning with about 600 patients, the hospital population increased year by year until the peak was reached in December 1945 with a total patient census/population of 1,729, beds in every hall and every building being overtaxed. Then began the gradual campaign to send patients who had reached maximum hospital benefits back to their own counties. Initially, social workers found placements for the mentally-retarded and the indigent in the community and at the "county farms". With the discovery of psychotropic drugs in the 1950s, the push for getting rid of restraints, community-based services and the establishment of Mental Health Centers in the 1960s, the massive asylum census continued its decline. Today, the average daily census is approximately 44 patients as the emphasis for community-based services increases and lengths of stay shorten due to medical advances and psychosocial rehabilitation.

Cherokee Mental Health Institute (CMHI) is one of 11 programs at the "Cherokee Regional Resource Center", a 208-acre (0.84 km²) campus under the direction of the Iowa Department of Human Services. Out of Iowa's 99 counties, CMHI serves the public mental health needs of 41 counties for adults and 56 for adolescents. CMHI receives 530 inpatient admission per year, has an average daily inpatient census of 44 patients, and an average length of stay of 25 days.

Most of the south wing is currently home to a prison and is surrounded by prison-grade fencing. It also holds criminally-insane and violent patients.

PARA CON IS COMING

Metropolitan State Hospital

treatment we’d rather not think about.  To hear the word conjures up images we try and block out.  The 
buildings, designed to be inviting and practical, fit into our worst visions of these asylums, and as they fell into 
ruin they became more and more intimidating.  The torment that went on in them and the patients who died 
without names and without peace create a settling ripe for ghosts and ghost stories.

Although not as famous as its nearby cousin Danvers State Hospital, Metropolitan State Hospital in Middlesex 
County, Massachusetts has become known itself for the type of ghosts and ghostly legends that give people 
nightmares.  No one knows what went on behind the cement walls of that building, but our imagination has 
created its resident’s lives.  When reports started to come out about the strange happenings on its grounds, 
Metro State was labeled as haunted, and since its closure in 1992 those rumors have been confirmed time and 
time again.  Trespassers inside the building and people just interested in the beauty of the land say the same 
things doctors and mental health workers had said for decades.  Metro State is haunted.

" ASYLUMS IN THE 1800'S

 people where so mis treated back in the 1800's .doctors where trying new treatments on these people all the time . whether it killed them or not . i think most of the doctors where more insane the the people in the asylums .

Abandoned Mental Hospitals

Mental disorder has always had its share of fear and stigma which is still evident in the walls of many asylums. The abandoned buildings have their tales of being haunted by the ghosts of their past. More so when we realise that the once inhabitants had been declared to be clinically insane by the society. Having been inhabited by the mentally challenged, their bad memories magnifies within the walls of the architecture. Yet asylums stand still to great character, rare solace, and irresistible magnetism for urban explorers. The era of old lunatic asylums is over as many of the modern psychiatric hospitals were closed down during the late 20th century, as the British society shunned the practice of isolating people suffering from mentally illness in secure institutions. The Care in the Community Act of 1980 has marked the transition in the way these people are being treated. We are showing you the ten creepiest yet most fascinating abandoned asylums in the UK AND THE US 

Mt. Vernon Insane Hospital

The plans for a state hospital for the mentally ill in Alabama began in 1852. The new facility was planned from the start to utilize the "moral architecture" concepts of 1830s activists Thomas Story Kirkbride and Dorothea Dix. Dix's reformist ideas, in particular, are credited as the driving force behind the construction of the hospital. Architect Samuel Sloan designed the Italianate building using the Kirkbride Plan. Construction of the building began in 1853 but was not completed until 1859. The hospital was the first building in Tuscaloosa with gas lighting and central heat,[4] "all clad in a fashionable Italianate exterior."[2] The Alabama Insane Hospital opened in 1861. It was later renamed for its first superintendent, Peter Bryce, a 27-year-old psychiatric pioneer from South Carolina. Bryce had been brought to the attention of the hospital trustees by Dix. He had studied mental health care in Europe and worked in psychiatric hospitals in New Jersey as well as his native South Carolina.[4] His tenure was marked by absolute discipline among the staff of the hospital. He demanded that patients be given courtesy, kindness and respect at all times. The use of shackles, straitjackets and other restraints was discouraged, and finally abandoned altogether in 1882. Various work programs and other activities were encouraged, including farming, sewing, maintenance and crafts. Between 1872 and the early 1880s, some of the patients wrote and edited their own newspaper, called The Meteor. These writings provide a rare inside look at life in a progressive mental institution in the late 19th century. At that time, Bryce's management and commitment to "scientific treatments" was recognized around the country as in a class of its own. [edit]Decline During the 20th century, the patient population expanded while standards of care fell to abysmal levels. Alabama Governor Lurleen Wallace viewed the facility in February 1967, and was moved to tears after an overweight, mentally challenged nine-year old attempted to hug her, crying "Mama! Mama!" She lobbied her husband, George Wallace (who held the actual power of her governorship) for more funds for the institution.[5] In 1970, Alabama ranked last among U.S. states in funding for mental health. Bryce Hospital at that time had 5,200 patients living in conditions that a Montgomery Advertiser editor likened to a concentration camp. That same year, a cigarette tax earmarked for mental health treatment was cut. One hundred Bryce employees were laid off, including twenty professional staff. Members of the Department of Psychology at the University of Alabama attempted to file suit on behalf of the laid-off workers, but Federal Judge Frank M. Johnson ruled that the courts had no standing to intervene on behalf of fired employees. He left open, however, the possibility of a suit filed on behalf of patients, whose quality of care was affected. [edit]Wyatt v. Stickney In October 1970, Ricky Wyatt, a fifteen-year-old who had always been labeled a "juvenile delinquent" and housed at Bryce despite not being indicated with a mental illness, became the named plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit.[6] His aunt, W. C. Rawlins, was one of the employees that had been laid off. Together they testified about intolerable conditions and improper treatments designed only to make the patients more manageable. In 1971 the plaintiff class was expanded to include patients at Alabama's two other inpatient mental health facilities, Searcy Hospital (Mt. Vernon) and Camp Partlow (Coker). The resulting court-ordered agreements formed the basis for federal minimum standards for the care of people with mental illness or mental retardations who reside in institutional settings. In 1999 a new settlement agreement was made recognizing a great deal of progress. The case was finally dismissed on December 5, 2003, with the finding by Judge Myron Thompson that Alabama was in compliance with the agreement. The standards elaborated in that agreement have served as a model nationwide. Known as the "Wyatt Standards," they are founded on four criteria for evaluation of care: Humane psychological and physical environment Qualified and sufficient staff for administration of treatment Individualized treatment plans Minimum restriction of patient freedom. The case of Wyatt v. Stickney came to a conclusion after 33 years, through the tenure of nine Alabama governors and fourteen state mental health commissioners, the longest mental health case in national history. The State of Alabama estimates its litigation expenses at over $15 million.[6] [edit]Future of Bryce Hospital Gov. Bob Riley announced on December 30, 2009 that Bryce Hospital will relocate into a newly constructed facility across McFarland Boulevard in Tuscaloosa, and the University of Alabama will take over the current Bryce campus. For several years the university had sought the 180-acre (73 ha) parcel of land, which is adjacent to its landlocked campus.[7] Riley said that a hospital for about 268 patients has been envisioned but the final size has yet to be determined. The deal, approved by Gov. Bob Riley and the Alabama Department of Mental Health on December 30, is worth $72 million in cash for Mental Health to build a replacement hospital. The university will pay $50 million in cash and Mental Health will get another $22 million in state bond money. The university has pledged another $10 million to clean up environmental problems on the Bryce grounds and restore the main hospital building, construction of which started in 1853.[7] The state had explored other options to replace Bryce, including possibly renovating vacant Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham and moving Bryce clients there, or contracting with a private company to construct and operate a new facility

Wolfe House/Andleberry Estate, Clovis, CA

Now known alternately as the Wolfe House, Andleberry Estate, and the Clovis Sanitarium, this large, imposing house sits on Clovis Avenue in the city of Clovis, near Fresno, California. Built in the first half of the 20th century, the house is said to have served as a private home for two different owners, an insane asylum, and a convalescent hospital before finally closing. It was bought by Todd Wolfe, who decided to use the creepy old building as a Halloween "Haunted House" attraction. He created a new name and implied fictional history for the house, and i became "Andleberry Estate" founded in 1871. Local lore, and Wolfe's own stories, hold that he got a real haunted house and not just a Halloween attraction.