4,537 Comments for Pennhurst State School

i think the curtain does a lot for this.. it brings me there actually and shows about how forgotten the place has actually become.. it was actually a home for some people and its so sad.

Listen, if the documentation you are reading is bits and pieces located on another site, you are missing some important background information. I'm very angry that this literature was left laying about so brainiacs like yourself could interpret it to your own liking. If you are reading court documents well god bless you if you can understand any of that. I read some of the documentation from a suspected case of abuse and the key word here is suspected. Unfortunately you know nothing about the client involved and his capabilities. I remember this incident well. However reading the documentation would lead you to believe the allegations were true. Not so...but see you have to know the whole story not just a few excerpts from some interviews. This is why I have a problem with you parent. You are only believing what you chose to believe. I'm sorry if it bothers you that a few of us defend places like Pennhurst but someone here has to or there would be far too many ignorant people posting nonsense all the time. I have no intention on backing down from anyone. People like you are annoying but sooner or later you'll get bored and go bother someone else. We can only hope it is sooner than later.

I think adjustment capability, rolling wheels, and guardrails make for a pretty decent bed actually!

Ah, I have no clue... it's been a long time since I took the photo, and I was a bit confused as to which building I was in at the time.

I THINK THEE DO PROTEST TO MUCH. If documented facts mean nothing, I can only conclude that those that would defend the indenfencable must of had a vested interest in stitutions like Pennhurst.

I work in mental health as well. I know nothing about Penthurst except for what I've read in this incredibly lengthy blog. My only question is this:

Some of you (names aside) have been fighting on this page for over A YEAR AND A HALF and what have you accomplished?? Not a damn thing. I'm going to bed, because I have to work tomorrow....

In one ear and out the other, eh? :-)

OK, then - you're right, of course. All those of us who work(ed) in institutions ever do (did) was torture, maim, humiliate, cremate, abuse, and harass our innocent charges, none of whom would have ever had any issues or problems had they not been kidnapped and forced into slavery in our hell holes. Yeah, you found us out. Our bad. Oops! Busted!

Marcia - Ed - looks like this very clever, erudite person finally found out what we have really been doing all these years through his/her brilliant deductive logic that just leaves me squealing in the aisles with shame, misery, and guilt. Ouch! Ouch! Put away your sharp yet brilliant rhetoric! You found us out! Oh golly gosh, we are and were terrible people but you can tell us how it should have been done and how we can rectify our hideous mistakes of the past! I see that you alone hold the key, and the rest of us are and always were torturous dogs! No, that would be unfair to dogs to say that.

But of course you are right! We need to admit our horrible past first before we can move on. You got us there. Oh, ouch! Oh, this hurts! Touche! Touche!

Happy now? Probably not, I am guessing. You seem a lot happier when you are in a self-righteous snit. :-)

Just admit PENNHURST was a terrable place. Look at the pictures read the documation. For your own sake admit it.
Only then will you become credible. Admitting our mistakes allows us to move forward!

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Advocate,

That's exactly what many of us do. But if you can't see the good that went with the bad you are doomed to repeat history. If you throw the baby out with the bathwater you'll have a nice clean tub but no baby. :-)

parent,

I see that - you are hardly able to control yourself NOW and you are presumably under fairly ideal conditions. :-)

P.S. I would advise a slightly larger circle of reading and references than that which you have limited yourself to. However, the danger there is that you might learn something you don't want to know - that is, that not all staff were killers and torturers, that not all situations were 100% terrible, that some people thrived even in rough situations, and that every now and then good things happened.

You would also have to realize that until you get off your hindquarters and get out there and push for increased taxes for mental health that this will happen over and over again while you are sitting there with your mouth agape and your finger pointing outward - you will then have to realize that "when you point a finger at someone else, 4 fingers are pointing back at you."

However, it's sure easier to poke at other people than to do something yourself, I've found. How can you fail when you never try? Leaves you right (and righteous) 100% of the time.

Come out with us and get your feet (and index finger that you wag at others so much) dirty and THEN tell us what it's like. Then you might have some credibility. Right now you come across merely as an armchair whiner. That's the best job in the world because you don't have to do anything but complain and protest. Maybe I should come join you. It would be a lot easier than actually doing something, that's for sure. :-)

People shoul spend less time thying to defend Pennhurst and more time making sure it never happens again.

VIOLENT ! VIOLENT! I have no dout ihe clients at PENNHURST lost control of their emotions. If I found myself in the DOCUMENTED conditions that existed at PENNHURST, I dout that I would be able to contain my emotions!

Thanks Big Ed,
What a bunch of stories! You certainly have a tough job but you do your best. Thank you for answering my question. Merry Christmas. :-)

"Hi Big Ed,
I'm sorry to keep this going but this thread is really interesting. You actually had to go to the hospital because of injuries sustained on the job?"

I've had to go for a few tetanus shots because of cuts I've received. Once I had to be checked for a concussion after I took a couple of shots to the head.. I had a split lip from a sucker punch. I worked at the pointy end of the stick (that's how I describe direct care staff who are first in the room on a help call). If everyone did their job no one got hurt staff or patient.. Patients were almost never injured during helpcalls. For those who may feel otherwise, consider this. If some one did get hurt we'd have to spend the rest of the shift treating the injury and trying to CYA. We're a lazy lot paperwork wise. So we were as careful as possible to not injure anyone ,if not from a sense of compassion then for our own good..

Take downs are supposed to be safe efficient and rare. We always tried to be that way. A fight on the floor ruined a night. Someone could get hurt, restraints might happen, and the documentation these days would choke a horse. Restrain a patient kill a forest.