1,476 Comments for Letchworth Village

*Great information about the historical belief that epilepsy and mental disease were thought to be incompatible, p0lyamor0us - thanks!

*As an FYI, if you are going to protect someone's tongue and teeth you generally avoid metal mouthpieces, such as these dental inserts. Most tongue and teeth protectors were either rubber tubing you bit down on, gauze-wrapped/padded tongue protectors placed between the teeth, or "mouth gags" that were small rubber pieces that dentists developed that you place between the back teeth (and are still used today in some dental procedures - Courtney could tell us more) to prevent the teeth from clamping down when a convulsion occurred.

*Here's a good article on the history of shock therapy and some pix of some the mouthpieces they used - it also contains some of the information noted above about the historical belief of the incompatibility of epilepsy and mental disease:
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n04/historia/shock_i.htm

*As well, it shows some pix of old ECT machines, so those of you who do urban exploring in old hospitals may be able to identify these if you see any. Eh, just don't get excited and zap yourselves . . . :-)

ive been there before its pretty cool

They did this to stop sewer gases. After the traps dry out there is nothing to stop gas from coming into the building.

Most places would never bother to deal with it,

Mouthpieces were inserted into the mouths of patients undergoing various forms of shock therapy to prevent the patient from damaging their tongues prior to the introduction of muscle relaxants.
At the birth of insulin coma shock therapy (and shock therapy in general, at that) it was believed that epilepsy and schizophrenia were mutually exclusive, thus justifying psychiatrists to induce seizures to alieviate symptoms of schizophrenia.

No, he is right. I'm a Dental Assistant. We still use these for making impressions of people's teeth for various reasons. (ie. dentures, braces, mouth pieces, bleach trays, crowns, etc)

I had to look real close and ask my husband to look at this...

With the untrained eye it looks like a painting that is ripped. But my husband pointed out to me that it's actually a screen door that's just ripped up and the dark is the screen and the light is where there is no screen due to the rips.

Beautiful shot! If I had this photo in a frame I would deffinatly hang it on my wall.

:-)

Here is some info specific to Letchworth, but all institutional facilities for people with mental retardation and/or developmental disabilities (MR/DD) are downsizing or closing as services are finally being provided for these folks in the community. The term for an institution for people with MR/DD is "institutional care facility for the mentally retarded", or ICF-MR.
http://www.omr.state.ny.us/...aniv/hp_journal2let.jsp
http://www.recordonline.com/a...vwmaince.htm
http://www.thejournalnews.com/app...023/NEWS07

Impulses!
LoL.
Not a problem, I like you ..................& buttons too!

Or one cold loose a finger.
really, a while back they really thought that putting things in ones mouth during a seizure was a help, live and learn. "The more you know" LoL

Perfect Title!

Hey i actually live not to far from Letchworth and i was kinda curious if anyone knew the story behind the asylum....cuz i know it was abandoned but why?

Ooops! Sorry, "~Me"! I shoulda read ahead!

People haven't inserted items into the mouths of people having seizures in many, many years because it is dangerous, both to the inserter and the insertee. The inserter can get bit (and the person having the seizure is usually unable to open their mouth to let go after clamping down) and the person having the seizure can potentially have their teeth broken when the "helper" tries to cram a hard object in between their clenched teeth or they can choke to death on the item if you can actually get it in their mouth.
Just an FYI. :-)

Ok so I now see that they did know not to put any thing into the mouth of a person taking a seizure.