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My mother was a patient there in 1954-55 with TB. She also conceived my sister there with an employee. We would welcome any information about how to find out any information with regard to male orderlies employed during that time.
JBugaArt@aol.com
Any information would be helpful. The employee would be a male African American.

I'm not disputing anyone's claims of abuse and mistreatment at Kings Park or anywhere else. But I do wish people would give more facts and specifics to back up their claims. "Shrieks and screams" alone do not mean a patient is being abused. The person might be screaming in response to internal stimuli, such as auditory hallucinations, particularly voices commanding him/her to do things he/she knows to be wrong. The person might be having a panic attack. The person might have autism and have no other means of communication, or have sensory integration problems. Any hospital is a scary place for children, unfortunately, and I hope steps were taken to make it as comfortable as it could be, especially for the children. I could tell you about several years of my life where I was forced to live in a very small room with people I didn't know, could only eat at certain times, had no choice of menu, had to use a bathroom down the hall that was shared with the whole hall, and was known only by a number, not a name. If I wanted to eat at all, I had to work in the kitchen. The elevators were often filthy, and frequently broken, forcing me to walk up four flights of stairs. Crazy people ran around yelling and pulling fire alarms at all hours of the day and night, even when there was no fire. I had to meet with visitors in a public room downstairs. Abuse? No...college.

While medication errors are never good, there is a big difference between a medication error and deliberate abuse. Medication errors are going to happen anywhere (I was in the hospital for medical issues for four days and caught four medication errors myself, some involving not getting prescribed medication or getting it hours later than ordered and one where a nurse tried to give me double the dose prescribed). They are even more likely when there is a high number of patients, low number of staff, patients on multiple medications at multiple times, and probably people giving medications who had little training and supervision in doing so. That doesn't make them ok, it just means that we are humans and not perfect. Complete elimination of mistakes is impossible. The goal is to set up systems that will minimize mistakes, catch the ones that do occur, and result in improvement. Again, in nearly all cases, the problem is with the system and not with the person. My understanding of moral obligation and legal requirement was always that if I witnessed abuse and did not report it, I was equally guilty of abuse.

the photos available here are awesome. i hvnt see any sites doing this yet. good job.

kelvinsse.blogspot.com

I really liked this painting, and could even use it as the setting of a poem or story. But then, I guess I shouldn't really like it, because after all, I don't have any formal art training. How could I possibly know what is beautiful? In the past 25 years, I've heard many complaints from many people about their time in state care. The one complaint I have NEVER heard is that the art in the state facilities wasn't "good" enough. I also can second everything that Lynne said. Not only do the facilities watch everything very closely, so do the advocates and the state. Agencies are required to maintain files of all the "adverse incidents" that occur, and to properly investigate them, and correct anything that need correcting. Reports are also made to the state protective service division for any unexplained injuries (such as a person having a bruise on her knee, but no one remembers seeing her fall or bump into anything), and for any suspected abuse or neglect, so that outsiders are also observing, reviewing records, and interviewing staff. It is far more likely today that a person is placed in a group home or institutional setting because they are in an abusive situation in their community home than that they are abused in the group setting.

liquid helium....liquid nitrogen? ummm, all u would see of me would be ass and elbows if I came across that

regarding getting a life and hanging out in psych centers...like I used to tell my kids when they didn't want to go to a discount store to shop because their friends might see them there: "Well, if they see you there, that means they were there too..."

That graph meter did record the temp of the showers, as recent as 20 years ago similar dial graphs, ( the circular graph paper is removed for documentation. same system was
used on hospital autoclaves to document insturment sterilization, in this case im sure it was for patient safety.

In most cases a patient in a state mental hospital would NOT be sent out to a general hospital for care of physical illnesses or injuries. If a person's mental illness is so severe that s/he needs to be in a psychiatric hospital, then that person would be unable to manage in a general hospital without a staff person with them. The state hospitals were already short-staffed; they certainly couldn't spare a person to go be with a patient in the hospital 24 hours a day. So they had complete hospital facilities as part of their physical plant, and would only send a patient out for very specialized care that could not be provided on-site. Thus, most of the deaths at a psychiatric hospital were due to the same causes as death in any other hospital--heart disease, strokes, cancer, etc. Mental illness does make death more likely because a patient with a severe mental illness is less likely to seek routine medical care, less likely to have good insurance, less likely to be taken seriously, less likely to maintain a healthful lifestyle, etc.

I read Renee's comment yesterday about being told "this place is top secret," and wrote a joke about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction being hidden here, but decided it was in poor taste and deleted it. Today, on another site, I saw a picture of a buried Sherman tank being unearthed in 1981 from the grounds of either Pilgrim State or Central Islip...sorry, I don't know how to do hyperlinks, but the site is edgewoodhospital.com. Click on "pictures' and then on "other." The tank pictures are near the end of the set.

P.S. - if at all you're around Maryland, feel free to contact me and I'd be happy to converse about your adventures!

cyzzanne@msn.com

Amazing! I visted Eastern State Penitentiary in the beginning of this month and I must admit that it's by far the most photogenic place I've ever taken pictures of! Great shots and depth of field on all your photos!

As of 9/2008 both of these boats, and the fireboat HEWITT have been removed.

As of 9/2008 HEWITT and the two NYNH&H RR transfer tugs have been removed, I guess the Hewitt has gone to the big firehouse in the sky. She survived over 100 years, she responded to the SLOCUM fire and probably most of the major marine fires during her years in service. RIP

Sorry, JUMBO had a wooden hull, this is iron. I am not going to say anymore till I am pretty sure what boat this is.