Comments

OMG i love it!

that does look so odd and outta place

those do look like seats from a van... maybe hospital transportation? that might explain why there are so many of them...
and that is a lot of nasty mattresses

apocalypta I thought the same thing! lol...

the balloons probably had more color and just faded over time... very sad

the picture is ugly, but it matches the peeling paint, lol

why is the paint only peeling close to the ceiling? thats kinda weird

In 1964, I attended a summer training program at Letchworth Village conducted by Howard Potter, MD a well known and highly respected child psychiatrist. At the time I was in my fourth year of training to be a child psychiatrist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Potter’s training program was focused on developmental disabilities including epilepsy and mental retardation addressing the great need these individuals had for professional understanding and help with adapting to life outside of an institution. We interviewed patients and in a clinical case conference discussed each patient’s history, diagnosis, and the impact of institutionalization on their lives and the effects of being separated from family and community. One of the things that impressed me about the experience was how eager these institutionalized patients were to talk with someone who was empathetic and interested in understanding their life experiences. The program had a big effect on the rest of my professional career as a child and adolescent psychiatrist and developmental disabilities became a major focus of my practice over the next forty years.
In 1964 Letchworth Village was a beautiful place with well-kept and maintained buildings and grassy lawns and wooded areas. The food was equal to what I had in college cafeterias and military mess halls. The professional staff there seemed to be competent and caring. In my opinion the harm to patients was a result of being institutionalized and separated from family and community and having limited freedom to make choices about their lives. In the 1960’s and ‘70’s, there was tremendous change in the field of psychiatry and the focus shifted to avoiding institutionalization and keeping individuals with these types of disorders at home and connected with family and loved ones while being treated in community mental health centers close to home. In California where I practiced for thirty-eight years, the state hospitals discharged institutionalized patients sending them back to the community, but unfortunately the legislature did not adequately fund the mental health programs which resulted in a drastic increase of mentally disturbed individuals being homeless. We are still dealing with this large population of homeless individuals in California. I assume a similar phenomena developed in New York after they closed their state hospitals and would be interested in learning what did happen there and would welcome hearing from former patients at Letchworth Village.

i really just wanna peel some of that paint, lol

beautiful colors ^_^

-=shiver=- scratching fingernails at the glass.... creepy, thanks joe, lol.
i love the cracking in the paint!

beautiful lighting Motts, as always

Lol Joe :)
thanks for the newness Motts... i spent the weekend at the beach and it was great to come home to a new gallery!

Keep those Junior Mints put up!

Should have taken another pic with all the paint pulled away!

if theres an old fire truck in there, i could hot wire it and we coudl all go for a ride!!!! (not kidding - i can hot wire old cars - but now new ones - its impossible)