3,287 Comments for Danvers State Hospital

Personal items weren't taken from patients to be mean or to make them feel bad. It was done for safety reasons, to prevent access to anything that could be used as a weapon against oneself or another (belts, drawstrings, shoe strings, razors, glass containers, pocket knives, any mouthwash or perfume that contained alcohol--yes, many people do drink mouthwash if that is the only alcohol available).

Many, perhaps most, patients came to the hospital with next to nothing in the way of personal possessions. Often they had nothing other than the clothes on their backs. A person ends up in a state psychiatric hospital because s/he is unable to live in the community and has no other place to go.

On several occasions I have responded to crisis referrals and gone to the individual's home to obtain needed personal items for a hospital stay. Usually I ended up at a local store to buy what s/he needed for a few days because there was nothing remotely clean or wearable in the person's home. The rest could be provided by the residential site or obtained from thrift stores, but I wanted him/her to have some new things, things that had never belonged to anyone else before. It came out of my own pocket, even winter coats and shoes if that's what was needed. No one asked me to do it, it wasn't part of my job, no one expected it, but it needed to be done, one human being to another. If it was within my ability to do, then it was my responsibility to do. I think most staff feel this way.

This is probably a stupid question, but did they house patients in the basement? I just wondered because of the doors..

One thing that's very important to remember is that not everything we read is true. Even things in textbooks.

"Inmate" is a very old, archaic term for people being treated in a mental hospital. In the decades since it faded from common usage in that sense, its meaning has narrowed to refer specifically to a person confined in a jail or prison due to either being charged with a crime or having been convicted of a crime.

Personally, I find it offensive to even refer to persons with mental illness as "they" and "them." Terminology like that reinforces the idea that people with these types of problems are somehow "Other" and that "we" who are not so affected (at least not at the present time) are different from "them" and we can therefore not be concerned about patient rights/treatment/housing. As long as "they" live somewhere away from us.

Oh, to be young and idealistic, knowing it all and out to reform the world! Then reality intrudes, and you learn how very little you know :-( (maturity is not when you finally know everything you need to know; it's when you realize how much you have left to learn)

The baths, the wrapping in sheets...we think those are horrible methods today, but at the time when they were in widespread use, they were considered state-of-the-art therapies. Of course, as with anything, there were some staff who used them coercively, as a threat or punishment. As wrong as that was, in most cases it was not because the staff were sadistic. They were overworked, underpaid, inadequately trained, and inadequately supervised.

Involuntary treatment in a locked facility is sometimes required for the safety of the patient and the community. Even in community settings, I have had jobs where I went to work every day knowing that I would be met with what, in any other setting, would be considered a criminal assault. The only question was the form of the assault. It might be having my hair pulled, getting a bite that broke the skin, being kicked, hit, punched, head-butted, pinched, scratched, having my clothing torn, having the interior of my car damaged in the course of transporting a patient, etc. Other patients have assaulted (even murdered) others in much more extreme ways, including arson. We cannot do away with institutions altogether. If we did, the only alternative for some patients would be jail. The symptoms are not the person's fault, but safety must be maintained while treatment alleviates the symptoms.

There are safeguards in place today to guard against "unfair" treatment. Individual program plans, behavior support plans, psychological services, human rights committees, mandatory review of all adverse incidents, oversight by advocates and guardians, required staff training in client rights, sensitivity, abuse and neglect all help to make programs more person-centered/client-focused.

As for leaving people as they are...if all you could do was yell/scream/cry, would that satisfy you??? Wouldn't you want help to teach you additional skills and to help you be more independent? Should we not help a child with autism learn to use a communication device, a picture exchange communication system, or some other means to better express his/her wants and needs? Should we really just say "that's the way he is, we don't want to change it"?

Or someone who has schizophrenia and walks around town all day talking to the voices in his/her head--should be not provide antipsychotic medications in an effort to help the person interact with others, maybe have a job or go to school? Should we really just decide that he should stay that way?

Most people do want treatment to improve their health. If a person has diabetes, does that mean that's how they are, and they should forgo treatment and stay that way? Even when a person doesn't want treatment, sometimes that refusal is a symptom of their illness. Often, people in a manic phase of bipolar disorder feel great--lots of energy, little need for sleep, exaggerated sense of their own abilities, etc. What they don't see is how they are alienating those closest to them by their extreme irritability and/or risky behaviors (spending too much money, driving recklessly, using street drugs, sexual promiscuity, etc.).

If we stipulate that institutions are undesirable, then we, as a society, have to be willing to provide and PAY for the costs of adequate community-based treatment.

Most patients with a mental illness or developmental disability, if they are sufficiently self-aware, do not want to be left as they are. They want to have their own homes, drive a car, manage their own money, have a job, get married, go out with friends...just like everybody else. Some of the most heart-wrenching words I have heard from clients have been from those with mental retardation who asked "Why am I like this? Why did I have to be born this way?"

Eerie, but fascinating at the same time

Amazing

imagining yourself there has never been easier. it's amazing how such a small realistic detail can have this effect on a human's mind.

Is there actually glass in that window because you can see a body standing in the window and if it is just a reflection that is way creepy looking. it doesnt look like just a reflection

DSH had a tuberculosis facility on campus, but its primary use was always a psychiatric hospital.

I Have just seen the movie session 9 and reconised it from this picture! Some times a photo stays with you, and this one did. I love your work! Iconic and hunting.

I love the color of the pictures. Very aniqued and faded. It really brings out the beauty of the picture.

I have a sick sense of humor but this...this is just going to far.

Oh and the history of the place is a tuberculosis hospital. What kinda hospital needs a steel plated door with a steel bar latch? A zombie hospital?

it is so boring up there now. it used to be exciting and erie to be up on that hill.

I really like this shot. Good job Motts.