1,062 Comments for Ypsilanti State Hospital

when you encounter a welded door in an abandoned hospital, you don't try to go in, someone went to a lot of work to make sure that you didn't get in, could be anything back there: radioactive material, structual instability, or zombies...there is a welded door like that at the Med State in Waltham before they knocked it down

here, maybe, the drama begun

Occupying leisure time is usually addressed in the treatment plan of any patient with mental health concerns. An important means of reducing undesirable behaviors is to institute incompatible desirable behaviors. When a patient has productive, interesting things to do, s/he is less likely to focus on self-injurious behaviors or delusional thoughts. So entertainment is critical in treatment and recovery. It can also be very therapeutic. Sometimes patients can act out their feelings or reveal them in art even though they cannot discuss them. Often a person who has difficulty speaking finds it easier to "sing" the words. Dancing provides physical activity that is useful (unlike banging one's head against a wall) AND does not sound like "work" in the way "exercise" does. It should go without saying how helpful humor can be. Patients can share their special talents and skills with one another and with staff, and thereby become less "different" and "other." Patients see themselves not as "sick" but as thinking, intelligent, talented individuals with much to contribute, and staff see this also. Entertainment is something to look forward to and may be an incentive to improved behavior . We should never think that someone is "too far gone" to enjoy or benefit from an activity, much less that he or she is unworthy or undeserving of an activity. Thinking like that is one step on the road to even further disenfranchisement, isolation, and abuse of persons with mental illness.

When I was in grade school in the Midwest in the 1960s, we were taught to recognize the difference in the tornado siren and the civil defense ("air raid") siren. The tornado siren was a continuous modulated blast and the civil defense siren was intermittent--short blasts kind of like a very loud "busy" signal on the telephone. For fire, they used the school's regular alarm bells/buzzers. We had periodic fire, air raid, and tornado drills throughout the year. I now live in an area where a "disaster" siren would mean a leak or explosion at one of the chemical plants or on the railroad, and we do "shelter-in-place" drills as well as fire drills.

The ward doors were huge thick wood doors w/ a small window, always LOCKED

I never saw such colorful walls back in the 59-61 era. They were all two-tone light & dark green with brown tile floors except the tunnel I think was just concrete floors. (been a few decades)

Looks like the main entrance, A building..where is the B building? was it already torn down? The Grayhound bus used to come through and stop right in front of the main A building.

Fresh air is FRESH air.... many inhabitants were allowed grounds privledges and able to freely roam the campus with golf course, tennis courts etc.during dayllight hrs only. You could even check out golf clubs.

Remember, not everyone tehre was NUTS!

The pourches had heavy wire plus usual screening for warm weather fresh air. This looks like it might be 'B' building, but I know A building had them. B building had a large rec/day room at the main entrance, opossite the main 'A' entrance. B building also had a cafe in the basment at the far west end w/outise entrance plus the tunnel.

its like seeing the face of god

mabey its just me, but it looks like the hallway is tilting left... Impossible to walk in this muck

that look like my apartment in queens

This one is EXACTLY like in Silent Hill 2. Only one thing is missing - PyramidHead beyond the barrier.

Having turned into some kind of female hobbit as I hit the midlife mark I would be horrified at the thought of being forced to look into a mirror whilst being told what needed tending to, I like denial and it likes me.

The patients were taken to this wall, which had large mirrors below the lights, and here they could look at themselves (or forced to look at themseles) while a nurse would point out features on their bodies that needed attending to. Such as their hair or their clothes.