457 Comments for Roseville State School

I haven't seen a place like this on the net for years.

"Treatment" How about torture.

What's pathetic is that MY lights never even last a few months and these things have been continuously working since the beginning of time. Where's the danged justice there? 8-(
Maybe this is just another zen koan - "If there's no one there to soak up the light rays, do light bulbs last longer?"
;-)

Hahahaha sucks to be you Max!

I would be pulling out that bannister and taking it home with me!

That is so weird........how many years could those bulbs possibly be, and still be working?

It reminds of the video for 'Closer' .

This is an old mechanical hydraulic cradle lift - see at this site:
http://www.spectrummedicalinc.com/dme/lftpat/index.htm
You put the sling around the person, attach it to the lift, crank them up into the air using the hydraulic lift, move the lift to where ever you want the person to be, and position the person over where you want to place them - the bed, the bathtub, the toilet, their wheelchair, etc. You lower them, detach the sling, and voila! Here you are - not dropped and staff with no back problems!

One of your best - extremely creepy.

Yeah! I don't know how I missed that other shower trolley. I think I was too busy looking at the "restraint thing," which I am guessing is a sling from an old Hoyer lift. These are mechanical lifts used to transfer people from place to place without having to use your backs to lift them. Safer for them, easier for you. You can lift folks out of their chairs, onto toilets, into bed, into the tub (or shower trolley!), etc.
http://www.dmeonline.com/PTLIFTS1.JPG
http://www.rehabmart.com/pimages2/pic113-D_en.jpg
http://www.rehabmart.com/2003/hoyers/Hoyer%20Lift%20Images/RM_Hoy18.jpg
http://www.edmond-wheelchair.com/thumbnails/Patient%20Lifts/Hoyer/70056%20sling.JPG

Aha! So that's what this is, a shower trolley!
http://www.opacity.us/image1956.htm

Thanks for the link Lynne, now I will have a better idea of what the function is of the equipment I'm looking at!

And yeah, it's definitely a slab tub, there was a full sized bathtub in the room too.

In days gone by it was realized that people whose bodies don't bend easily needed to be bathed somewhat differently than those whose bodies are more flexible. As noted above, filling an entire tub and cleaning it in between clients when you are supposed to bathe 20 people in a 2-hour period is difficult, if not impossible, to do thoroughly and safely. As well, there are safety issues with lifting people whose bodies don't bend easily into and out of deep tubs, both as far as potentially dropping the folks who are being lifted and with ruining the backs of the people doing the lifting. The compromise was what we now call a shower trolley or shower gurney (see http://www.landm.com.au/kh600.html and http://www.westonsinternet.co.uk/images/aa1760.jpg for examples of current equipment). However, when this equipment was first developed before they had all the swell light weight stuff we have these days, they used ceramic tubs, which, as I noted above, we still use in many facilities (such as the one where I am currently employed) and the staff call them "slab tubs" precisely because they resemble autopsy tables. We also have the more modern shower trolleys, but they aren't as stable, and this is important when you are trying to bathe someone who is 200+ pounds and can't assist you in bathing and who may have severe contractures and spasticity, making for a wild shower when they are soapy and you are supposed to prevent them from slipping out of your grasp and landing where they shouldn't. I humbly admit that there is something about a cart with wheels that makes one leery of using it for bathing large wiggly people. Therefore, we are sometimes reduced to using bizarre looking but much safer equipment, such as the slab tubs. Now, if you want to provide a service for people with disabilities and make a lot of money, this would be an excellent field to go into to produce newer, better, safer equipment . . .

However, I have to admit, it is much more exciting to think of this as a draining table than just a boring old tub . . .

I agree with Rachael about this not being a tub of any kind. Autopsy table would be my guess.

Oh, I read Motts' intro page. He uses pseudonyms for the lesser known places. That way troublemakers can't go there. Very conscientious.

It should give you the chills. In lots of institutions, patients were cagd up in these things for days on end! Treated worse than animals they were!