1,384 Comments for Gaebler Children's Center

Ranting done for this year....happy new year!

I am struck by how voiceless and powerless a group psychiatric patients are and have been.

The so called caregivers can have lifelong careers blatantly neglecting and abusing those in their so called (clutches) care without ever being called to account for their terrible misdeeds.

Yes I am bitter, I admit it.

Hooray for me, I made it through the holidaze without obsessing about the nightmarish past of good ole Gaebler...happy 19 to all the survivors and perpetrators...well maybe not to the perps, but time heals all wounds, right? NOT!

Thanks Patrick! The number of former Gaebler kids that comment here is incredible, and it could certainly become an interesting publication. I am currently wrapping up two volumes on other state institutions in MA, but will consider this once they're out for sure.

As far as I know, records from state institutions such as Gaebler are considered private medical records, and can only be accessed by family members.

I'm looking for someone very pacific from here is there records?

Hello, my name is Matt. I was a patient in the summer of ‘83. I believe Ward D. Hoping to connect with anybody who remembers me. I was best friends with Mike I and Sandy W.
Thx

Mr mitts. If your planning to write another book. I would like to be a part of it , I can only tell you the experiences that I went through and it wouldn't be hell and back , in places such as gaebler is how you make it in other words if you want the help or not. A lot of us kids were testing the boundaries because a lot of us were angry of the situation we brought upon ourselves , so needless to say when we get in the institution we acted out, I can go on and on about this and tell you the truth of what I experienced, if your interested. I will check back on the sight from time to time for your response , if you are interested it would be a hell of a book , we can exchange info to get in touch with me. , I can write up a rough draft of what I went through and look of how I turned out today , very successful

I look back at all of this. Yes it was crazy times but you know what people change for the better if they want to, I live in maine ,I own my home and I build log cabins for a living for the past 20 plus years, I say to everybody that went through this at this awful times of your life, keep it on the back burner and dont let it interfere of what you are doing now, keep a positive attitude and move on, yes I do understand that it was terrible for all of us but a lot of the staff were very supportive and this is coming from a patient that was on ward e from 82 to 84 I can only speak for myself that I didn't have any bad experiences with the staff ,they were only there to help me with my anger issues and thank God they did , I wouldn't be the person I am today, you all take care and take it one day at a time, love. Patrick

Corey was a staff member I very much looked up to when I was going through hard times, if this is you Corey. Thank you

Who ever wrote this. Very well said

I was there in the mid 80's on ward D. Me and my roomate Clara were the ones that walked eight out the front doors when one of the head shrinks let us go down to her office to watch the Superbowl. Earned a few days in the isolation room for that stunt lol. I remember Willie, Suzanne, Doug and Chris. I also remember Pedro D from I think it was ward a on the other end of oir floor.

i used to work at GCC. From 90-91 (a year/ year and a half)
Just as I started working there new policies were put in place to improve treatment standards. For instance the open rooms could not be locked any more. This was due to a shift in the philosophy of treatment towards a least restrictive approach, this is when residential treatments centers started "blooming" all over the place and state "asylum" type institutions were sun-setting and eventually closing. It was my understanding that GCC was simply one of the oldest and last places the state had on its books and was planning to close even as I was starting. At that time the residential treatment centers and group homes were new and struggling to manage this new model, placing clients was a challenge to find the right fit.

I saw good things and bad things during this transitional time. GCC had "old school" counselors who could be very heavy handed, they were burnt out and institutionalized themselves. I was also witness to many counselors who (as the climate shifted) were younger and more in line with the more modern relational and supportive approach.

Residential centers eventually picked up these counselors as their state jobs were ending, and so the transition had a few bumps to say the least. I was working as a counselor all through this period. Honestly, I saw more inappropriate staff behavior at group homes than i did a GCC, but the tone at GCC was tuned to a much more structured pace and residential centers did not have the models quite right yet.

Maybe stuff happened before my time, but i never saw or heard of someone getting beaten or spied on in the showers (for example). Yes there were "all available" calls and Safety Coats (different than straight jackets), and of course chemical restraints. I have been part or witness to all of those activities. Did clients riot?, DEFINITELY. Was it dangerous at times?, DEFINITELY. Whether conditioned to or not, clients would aggressively engage staff and many times sought out a physical altercation. I could argue that they had been institutionalized and learned that if they felt out of control they would openly state they were "going off" and would force being restrained. Often they would start "spinning" and get a time out, blow the time out, be escorted to an open room (unlocked per policy), continue to escalate in the open room and announce to me that i better get staff because they were about to go off. Many times these situations resulted in the client urinating or throwing feces on staff. They would also bite and scratch staff and if you were a female staff chances are your hair would be pulled with enough force to be pulled out.

Yes i saw a lot of over medication, a practice that was common for many years but was on the way out as philosophies changed. I too remember the Thorazine Shuffle. Sure there were clients who were misplaced there or as a result of limited alternatives, BUT there were many who were dangerous. DEFINITELY there were clients who were a danger to themselves or others. Some clients were victims of horrible abuse, others had psychiatric issues not related to abuse. No doubt in my mind some (not a ton, maybe 2 out of 10) of the clients were a very VERY clear danger to society and themselves. I wont divulge stories or histories but lets just say trust me.

I left GCC shortly before they closed and went on too work in research with adults on language acquisition studies until grant funding on that program ran out. I worked in residential centers and group homes until 1998. In many ways i too feel like I was scarred from my time at GCC, other facilities, and due to events i had seen throughout the years. This put me in a position to change careers and step away from what i considered an unhealthy career for me and eventually my family. I know that treatment was anything but helpful for many people and that institutionalizing and housing was the result of a society trying to understand, help, and deal with individuals who (for whatever reason) were having issues. Primitive practices continued through the 70's and into the 80's and change can be very slow.

It is positive feedback for me to know some of the individuals who were in a facility like GCC came out the other side doing OK, when all I ever saw as a counselor was a new person come in and then one day leave never knowing what "better" meant or what the future might hold for them.

I was there and all they kept doing was shooting me up with drugs and putting me in that isolation room all I wanted to do was go home they wouldn't let me use a phone and they kept putting me in the isolation room that place sucked

Janet I lived at Gaebler for over two years way before the turn of the century (1970's) and I cannot for the life of me remember a foghorn. Happy holidaze!