1,382 Comments for Dixmont State Hospital

kinda looks like the Death Tunnel at Waverley Hills Kentucky !

Looks lonely. empty.and a neat place to go see,

Navi your point is extremely valid. Mental disorder is such an individual thing, I think the biggest mistake society makes is sticking the same label on everyone and trying to manage them all with the same process.

Remember, its society. There are no right or wrong answers, and your opinion matters just as much as the person next to you, irrelevant of their expertise. Look how wrong professionals have been in the past. We all have to do the best with the time given to us.

Where I'm coming from is a completely non-professional place, merely observation and personal opinion (being of mental disease myself). So if Lynne corrects me on something, or if I don't word it properly, so be it.

Criminals in US prisons are afforded medication, yes, but I'm not convinced something that simple is "proper care." They're still being left at the mercy of other criminals/prisoners who are likely to harm them (a quick example that comes to mind is a recent forced tattooing - a man was forcibly tattooed with the name of his victim on his forehead, which I find to be sick on all levels), and in most cases, medication is the ONLY course of treatment. I know there is counseling available somewhere, in some way, but even that seems like a band-aid.

I can think of another example my Law teacher told me about last year - who knows if this situation has changed, I certainly would like to. A schizophrenic on death row refused to take his medication because he knew the law was that he wouldn't be executed unless he was of sane mind. But the prison was unsure if they were within their rights forcing him to be medicated only so they could kill him. And if he knew he needed to be medicated, was he really insane? That's messed up on so many levels.

None of which helps the fact that WSH housed a group of dangerous people who are now roaming the streets, because the government (and most of its citizens, probably) didn't care and closed the hospital.

Thanks for that Navi, I wasn't too sure where you were coming from. I agree with you, criminals with mental disorders also need to have treatment available to them, and that is something we have in our jails here in NZ. Do US jails not have that accommodation?

Navi, Ignorance are not I still believe mental patients deserve to be treated humanly. If that makes me Ignorant so be it.

"Navi, Sorry you cant seem to understand my statement. "

And I'm sorry you can't seem to understand what it's like to have mental disease. :) Unfortunately, ignorance isn't one of them.

"Navi, are you suggesting someone with a mental disorder should not be treated as a criminal, even if they have committed (and been found guilty of) a crime?"

I am merely suggesting that anyone who suffers from mental disease deserves to be treated for it in some way, shape, or form. Chances are, if they weren't mentally unstable in the first place, they wouldn't have committed the crime. If they suffer from mental disease, did their "true" selves, their rational selves, commit the crime? So honestly, what good does it really do to toss them in a prison cell? Do you really want your tax dollars going towards what may actually be construed as inhumane treatment? I don't.

For the record, attempted suicide is a crime.

As an innocent bystander- not in the medical pro. - just a big fan of the site. I have read almost every post good and bad in the arguement of the torture and poor treatment in these places, from a laymans standpoint here is my opinion.

Long before asylums and hospitals came to be, "strange" and "unusual" practices took place in the name of medical science , without these "torturous" or "odd experiments" how could the medical field have become so helpfull???? So it just stands to reason that of course the practices would continue when doctors began looking into the function of the mind. It is just the way humans learn- trial and error- we learn from our mistakes -thats just the way it is. What we think at one time is the way things should be done, may turn out to be wrong but from that we learn that the right way . It is the learning process plain and simple.
So Lynne you are 100% right in your last post, you just say it very eloquently and passionately, but you are right!!!
I am so tired of reading "people were tortured here" "people were mistreated here". It gets old, of course the bad is sensationalized, but what about all the good that has happened in the name of medical science, you hardly ever hear of that.

Sorry for the rant, and it may be a little out of place here, but I had to say my peace on the subject. I have a child with a life long medical ailment and if the medical world needs to do some sort of experiments to find a cure then so be it, I would like to see my child healthy and well someday by whatever means necessary, and I hold that opinion to the practices they used in the treatment of the mentaly ill then and now. There needs to be a way to make people better, and without experiment we can't learn, I bleieve it is as simple as that. Like Lynne says over and over what was practiced then, seems bad now, and what is practiced now will seem bad in the future. But the medical field will have advanced ( like it is always does through experimentation) and thats a good thing.

Okay now I'm really done with my rant *phew*

Navi, Sorry you cant seem to understand my statement. People with mental disorders need to be treated humanly.
Criminals belong in jail Period.

Navi, are you suggesting someone with a mental disorder should not be treated as a criminal, even if they have committed (and been found guilty of) a crime?

THE COMMONWELTH OF PA SUCKS BALLS

i hate our state goverment

yeah that place was really spooky the many days i was there. when i went to the morge i was sitting around, all of a sudden all the doors slammed shut. youd hear voices and doors would randomy slam

I lubs our lynne!

So you're denying that sex offenders can have mental disorders?

Why would they be sex offenders?