1,927 Comments for Pilgrim State Hospital

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Well, you know, you COULD donate your body to science now... I AM a doctor... (right Lynne?)
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The BODY FARM! :-)

http://www.avionnewspa...w.avionnewspaper.com
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Lyric, That is exactly why I want my body donated to medical science.
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Yeah your right Lexy...it just makes you think....:-(
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H mek-were you attending or just observing?
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Neal, I never though that they would allow patientes to work in the doctors' homes, but in a way I suppose it's like having a job, and somewhat of a life again. Almost like your family is everyone in the hospital...:)
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Neal,
Yes, thank you for the input about this huge facility. It makes it almost a complete package: Mott's wonderful photo expose' and your commentary combined are great. It's about as close as most of us will be to actually being there!
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Lots of patients expired at PSH... listen to the noises in your own well-maintained home at night... multiply that 100-fold in these old buildings.. lots of noise.. I attended my first autopsy and surgery @ PSH in 1970.
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Never saw jump nets when I was a nursing student there...
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Thank you for all these wonderful photos, the website and the memories revisited. I'm sitting here, being totally transported to another time and place. I was a student at PSH, graduated in 1972.. moved to Houston, Tx in 1982. Love this site.. and will send classmates here.. thanks...
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Patients were allowed outside, unattended and had boyfriends/girlfriends and got together. There were births and the babies were adopted. When my mother drove to PSH for the overnight stay to see if I would like to school there, we saw a black man walking arm-in-arm with a white, very pregnant woman.... looked ahppy and cozy together... it was a beautiful day for a walk... didn't see mixed couples very much back then...
This was an adult facility, BTW, to address someone's question on an earlier photo. Kids weren't admitted here.. there were other state facilities... a famous one was Willowbrook State School but that was in Staten Island... made Geraldo Rivera famous in his expose in the 1970's, but Long Island had state facilities for kidsin Huntington or somewhere not too far from there... I can't remember just now, where we as PSH students had to go for MHMR training. As a student I didn't see physical abuse, but lots of verbal abuse.. from the 'attendants' who were not well educated and 'institutionalized' in the true sense of the word, as well as the patients were...
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In that case, for a building like this you are likely correct.
We've learned a bit in regards to housing/staff ratios.

I've said it before and I will say it again. Medicine is a practice.
Unfortunately, it takes a few screw ups to learn.
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WOW!

It's a pleasure to have you here visiting.
Thank you so much for coming by.

We would like to hear more about the hospital and your experiences there. If you would be so inclined to share it with us.
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I hope this guy Wayne is 15 years old and is planning to grow up some. There is no respect shown here and I just shake my head. I went to school at Pilgrim, still keep in touch with some of my nursing school friends and cherish the memories.
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This is my class... graduated in 1972..I can name these peeps... they changed the uniforms soon after that, but I can understand why someone thought it was a class from the 50's. There are plenty of these classmates alive still. we are in our mid-50's and almost no one stayed in the state hospital system.. we all moved away... having had enough of it then, but time has made these years more precious to us... and value the education we got there.. We knew we were getting a good education WHEN we were there... It was awesome. I live in Texas now, moved from Baldwin NY in 1982... still a good nurse...nursing administrator now. They taught us integrity in nursing you don't see at all now.