Comments

I like reading comments by former patients best. I was hospitalized at a private hospital for a year when i was nineteen and way to many other hospitals over the years for a few months or weeks at a time. Even though the first hospital was private I was locked in seclusion for a month. I lost track of time but my family remembered. I also remember staff swinging heavy keys around. when i would say seclusion was traumatic it was denied by the staff and said to be treatment. A lack of stimulation was supposed to promote health. Thank God today it is acknowledged by my therapist and doctor to be abuse and i am getting treatment for ptsd. I can not stand to be touched by psychiatric staff today. I have had not a few but many abusive experiences. I like reading the posts from the people who spent time at this hospital not because others are hurting but because others understand. I have some good memories too and a lot of the staff were good unlike Gaebler. There was one that was sexually abusive but he got fired. cold wet sheet packs were used multiple times a week on my unit and all male calls and people getting dragged off to seclusion happened pretty frequently too. There were college age staff who were really kind and a volunteer so I was very lucky it wasn't worse. They had a greenhouse that they used for therapy. The hardest thing was it was so invalidating because the staff was so defensive. they couldn't realize/admit how their well intentioned treatments were abusive. They would joke about taking down people and it would make me shiver. There are plenty of staff today who just won't admit that so much of treatment hurts and it bothers me even though I should be over it. It is really good to read my emotions in other people's posts and makes me feel I am not crazy and alone.

There are a few large forensic hospitals today which house people who have committed violent and horrific crimes that are so advanced that seclusion rooms are very seldom used. Feces are not thrown in anger...It is sad that there was not the same knowledge of therapeutic ways to interact with people with criminal backgrounds (and other psychiatric patients) that there are today. It is sad that such barbaric methods were resorted to because extreme isolation makes mental illness worse. It is my hope that one day seclusion and restraint won't be used period anywhere including schools. They are not necessary today.

Looks like someone is standing at the end of the hall waiting for you!

Can you imagine the hell it had to be locked in a small narrow room like that?

Weird that they wouldnt of shut off the power, how else could they watch the T.V.? I dont think there would be anyway you could get me to sleep in an abandoned asaluym I still sleep with the tv on an im 40, way to creepy for me!

Oh, its perfect peel soft-hued whitish disappearing hallway. Looked at this for a really long time! Love this shot!

I literally went "OHHHHH" aloud when I saw this one. Gorgeous.

This is simply breathtaking.

This is such a gorgeous gallery, I loved it. Wonderful photography. :)

The device in the foreground is an intact AreoFlush bedpan washer-sterilizer. The focus of the picture is indeed a Kholer diaper sink, listed on their website as a morgue sink. Bedpans and soiled diapers were scrapped out into the sink, the diapers were the sent to the laundry and the bedpans were cleaned in the AeroFlush. It used hot water to clean the bedpan and steam to sterilize the unit.

This is a standard Hobart puree maker. It has two or three VERY sharp blades at the bottom of the bowl that rotate at a high speed and turn whatever is in the bowl to a fine mush. Suitable for spoon feeding those that could not chew. The handle on the cover controls a scrapper that cleans anything off the inside of the lid. Used to this day in most nursing homes and hospitals.

Check out Acorn Industries, they manufacture stainless steel sink/toilet units for penal institutions. In my 23 years as a maintenance supervisor in a penal institution I, nor, to my knowledge, have any of my fellow maintenance professionals, ever encountered one of these units being destroyed to provide metal for shanks. These things are just to well built.

I was a patient at Manteno in 1977&1978;.I remember those bathrooms. I was at James Bldg,which was remodeled& the bathrooms had regular stalls with doors& the showers had doors.My understanding why it was built that way is in 1930s mental hospitals were thought to be built like reform schools & were not very comfortable. Today the concept is mentally ill people deserve better & the concept is for a dignified environment.This picture is in a 1936 bldg.Cottage ward bldgs from 1934 such as Krapelin have 8 toilets with no stalls or partitions at all. The Krapelin bldg is where the Chaplains were. We had 2 Catholic Priests& had Mass almost every day. Manteno MHC was not as bad as the common perception There were good staff for the most part God bless &peace; to all from James Vezina Chicago IL

A Spence pressure reducing valve assembly.

Oh wow....so ur the man thats in my dreams....