1,944 Comments for Worcester State Hospital

I was also thinking craft matic adjustable bed. Maybe this is where they are getting them

Coolest Place in MASS

In nurses training in 1970 my entire class was taken on a field trip to a looooovely facility called [name removed] in OH. It is closed now and may even be gone. The things I saw that day almost made me leave nursing. Patient's were strapped to beds or restrained in chairs. Some of them were not able to conmmunicate except by screaming. There were MR/DD and mentally ill all in the same areas. The ages were young children and up. The rooms were packed. Cribs by adult beds. I can't remember if this area was the ward or a day room. I am hoping in my mind that it was a day room where all ages mixed. Many of the patient's reached out to us and seemed hungry for human contact. It was and is the worst "medical housing" I have ever experienced. It felt like there were warehousing people.
But it was worse when they closed all of the facilites in my part of the state. There was very little provision made for most of the patients. They were mostly taken back to the county they originally were from and became a burden to the county. Many group homes were opened. Most of the MR/DD stayed in the homes. The mentally ill....not so much. I live in the county seat and many of the mentally ill stay in my town so they can walk to the offices that provide their benefits. So we have "crazy" people walking around town all of the time. Many of my neighbors are afraid of these people. The folks are not violent, but they act out and scare people.
The old way was bad and probably Very bad in many instances, but this new way is not better. The only difference is now there is no large hospital building for the state to support. The mentally ill are still underserved and abused, but now this happens because there is no where for them to go. They live on the streets, in garages with no plumbing, and anywhere they can find. They do not wish to be confined and with the current laws unless they are a danger to themselves or someone else there is no way to force them to stay anywhere. Some of them choose the street over the nice warm dry housing they were originally assigned. So do we have it right this time? My answer is NO. Do I have an idea that addresses all of the needs? NO, but I wish I did.
Getting down off the soap box now. Thanks for listening.
:)

so can i, beverly

beautiful!

To me it looks like a circuit board holder. You clip a circuit board either in between or into the tabs on the top to hold it still and closer to eye level when you work on it. This would make sense if it was near the other electronics stuff, and like dme said, the company made electronic components.

Stay away from the box DME . . . Its nothing but trouble.

Creepiest looking bathroom I've ever seen.

I really, really, really want to visit this place now.

Holy cows and pooh, James Dean! This is an AMAZING picture. Me and the bestie can't stop awing...

A very gorgeous building, if must say so myself.

This is a beautiful building with an amazing history. I sadden to hear that most of the hospital was demolished, however, I appreciate the efforts of Perservation Worcester organization and their success in preserving the Clock Tower and Hooper Turret.

i was there last night and that shit was scary man

This photo makes me sadder than any other I have seen on this site. Not so much because of what it shows (it was typical for public facilities of the times, public health/hygiene more important than personal privacy, emphasis on expediency and efficiency due to staff and monetary shortages) but because it confirms what my former client told me. The communication was rudimentary, non-verbal, fragmented, difficult to interpret...but it was the TRUTH. What other truths have clients tried so desperately to communicate with anyone who would listen, with ME, and I have been unable to understand or have not believed???

In my comments on another picture I mentioned a former client who had a phobia of showers after several decades of institutionalization. I never was able to get a completely accurate description of what had happened during showers in the institution, but the image I have formed in my mind, sadly, fits well with this photograph. Bits and pieces I have gathered have included a large room, many patients, benches along the walls, and the impression that "showers" were from staff with a hose rather than from plumbing fixtures. I hesitate to post this, because I know some will likely jump on it as yet more evidence of how these facilities, although started with the very best of intentions, came to be staffed with sadistic predators who victimized the patients every moment of every day. What is absolutely crucial to remember is that virtually every staff person did the very best he or she could with what was available for doing the job. There was never enough money, never enough space, never enough help, never enough material, never enough time. THAT is what we must never forget--what happens when we set impossible standards and then turn our backs. I am not posting this to sensationalize what may have happened (again, I am just saying that this picture matches pretty closely the image I had formed in my mind from patchy bits of recollections I was given, not to say that I KNOW how this room was used), but to say that neither can we hide from the truth. I really hope my mind's picture is wrong. Also, the person to whom I am referring had developmental disabilities and was not able to bathe independently. Situations may have been different in facilities for patients with mental illness (although often the two populations were mixed in those years, so trying to clarify only makes the picture muddier).