3,181 Comments Posted by Lynne

That's just information for which staff you are supposed to contact if there is an emergency or if you have questions.

To man-o-scince,

The current term is "psychiatric facility" and the people who stay there are "people with psychiatric illnesses" or "psychiatric disabilities". Those other terms went out of use many years ago and can be painful to hear if you or a family member are affected.

Hopeful,

You have learned more than most people will ever earn in a lifetime - that people are just people no matter where they are or what they do. We all have bad times and we all have times when we are on top of the world. The difference is in the resources we have - personal, physical, financial, genetic, etc. - and the amount of time we are affected - with the good as well as with the bad. You sound like one of the strong ones who will eventually conquer your demons and will be a beacon for others. I salute you and your strength.

Lynne

Thanks, Big Ed - I knew they did that for necrotic tissue but hadn't thought about it for burn debridement.

I just got this off a website:

"Maggot Debridement Therapy (MDT) is the medical use of live maggots (fly larvae) for treating non-healing wounds.
In maggot debridement therapy (also known as maggot therapy, larva therapy, larval therapy, biodebridement or biosurgery), disinfected fly larvae are applied to the wound for 2 or 3 days within special dressings to keep them from migrating. The literature identifies three primary actions of medical grade maggots on wounds:
1. They clean the wounds by dissolving dead and infected tissue ("debridement");
2. They disinfect the wound (kill bacteria);
3. They speed the rate of healing."

You learn something new every day! :-)

Sounds like someone needs a group hug, huh? ;-)

Jackieb,

It makes it difficult to do a search for historical items on eBay or anywhere on the web because of the changes in terms over the years. It also makes it difficult to understand what other people are talking about because many of the categories overlap or are mutually exclusive. I find it is always helpful to go over vocabulary before I talk to anyone because there are plenty of misconceptions from words and terms we used to use and because our concepts change every few years and we learn more.

Here are some of the many old terms, all of which were "official" terminology sometime in the past 250 years:

Psychiatric Illness:
lunatic hospital
lunatic asylum
insane hospital
insane asylum
state hospital
psychiatric hospital
mental institution
mental hospital
mental asylum
asylum
sanitarium
sanitorium
inpatient hospital
psychiatric ward
forensic hospital/ward
residential psychiatric facility
mental home
mental health institution
madhouse
psych ward

Intellectual Disabilities:
asylum for idiots
feeble-minded
amentia
mental deficiency
mental subnormality
mental retardation
idiot
imbecile
moron
trainable
educable
low-grade
high-grade
mentally challenged
mentally defective

But - but - but I'm ebil!

No, we are all pretty much totally ebil. :-)

Oops! Missed this comment - thanks, Taubin, for alerting me. :-)

~Me is the best, ain't she? That's why we all love her. :-)

"Mentally subnormal" was where we were somewheres after we dropped the terms "idiot," "imbecile," and "moron" while we were past "feeble-minded" but not quite up to "mentally deficient," which of course was years before we used the term "mental retardation."
Like "retardation" it was initially not considered anything but descriptive - if you believe that intelligence lies on a bell curve then 1/2 the people in the population are above the middle score and half the people are below the middle score. If you are several "standard deviations" below the norm, statistically speaking, you would be "below normal" or "subnormal." However, it soon took on connotations like "subhuman," even though it was just meant as a descriptor.

In today's vernacular the person HAS (as opposed to IS) an "intellectual disability" and/or s/he needs "increased supports to make it in his/her environment."

No one is ever happy with things how they are. But that is usually a good thing. :-)

Idiot = originally "layman, person lacking professional skill", "person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning."

Imbecile = through the French from Latin imbecillus or imbecillis, weak, feeble; of unknown origin, weak or feeble, particularly in mind.

Moron = Coined by Henry H. Goddard who took the word from the ancient Greek moros, meaning dull or foolish.

Today's history lesson free, and worth every penny!

Now you're getting into the swing, Taubin! ;-)

Believe about half of what I say as well. Everyone has his or her own slant on things. :-)

They used to do mechanical debridement (that is, removal or scraping off) of burn tissue in "tank rooms" where they would soak the person in a whirlpool tub so the outer layer of burnt/dead skin could slough off and be easier to scrape off. Very painful, very horrifying to everyone involved. One place I could never work is a burn ward. Because of concerns regarding infection some places now use streams of water or hoses for this purpose instead of tanks of water.

But Motts is correct that they did not do this at developmental centers but rather at regular or specialized medical centers.

Katie:

https://www.opacity.us...rotting_bathroom.htm