4,081 Comments for Norwich State Hospital
kathy wrote:
gees it looks like a jail
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
- Gallery: Lockdown
kathy wrote:
very big room I love the angle it was shot from,but is a solairium bed
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
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kathy wrote:
wow it's hard to believe that they kept human beings caged up like that. i think it's cruel even if they weren't in their right mind
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
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Lynne wrote:
With the luxury of 20 to 60 years' hindsight under our belts it is easy to say that many things that occurred were terrible and shouldn't have occurred when there were no other alternatives at that time. The true challenge is talking about something that is occurring right now and making sure something gets done immediately rather than waiting until something negative occurs and then complaining that it never should have happened.
However, you need facts and data and experience to find out where the real problems are. If people wait to be told about problems by the press (or by people who are paid to testify for or against something and have a financial stake in things being a certain way) then you have a harder time separating out the facts from the misperceptions, of which there are many. The sorting of the wheat from the chaff is the hardest part of the problem and can only occur if you know the true history of what options were (or weren't) available at the time. But you do need to keep in mind that the public didn't care enough at this time to make sure that this didn't happen by increasing public funding. Most communities worked quite hard to get people who were different placed elsewhere, and for long periods of time, if possible.
Poke at the docs all you want, but they aren't the ones who sent their loved ones away or made laws allowing people to be locked up and have these techniques utilized. Poke at the families, but they had no alternatives as far as community options or funding. Poke at the staff, but they worked long hours with terrible pay doing a damnable job that few would choose, even today. Poke at the people who had the problems, and that will get you nowhere because these are mostly physiological problems.
Sorry - that leaves you and me and our wallets at tax time. Take a poke there and see how many people raise their hands and accept responsibility for the lack of funding and for the lack of interest in people with mental illness and the folks with intellectual disabilities. Bet you'll have damn few takers.
Ask how many would rather blame the docs, the hospitals, the staff, and sometimes the families, and that's where the majority of raised hands will be, because it's easier and we don't like looking in mirrors, especially when the mirror reflects back a distorted image and it's not even a funhouse mirror.
However, you need facts and data and experience to find out where the real problems are. If people wait to be told about problems by the press (or by people who are paid to testify for or against something and have a financial stake in things being a certain way) then you have a harder time separating out the facts from the misperceptions, of which there are many. The sorting of the wheat from the chaff is the hardest part of the problem and can only occur if you know the true history of what options were (or weren't) available at the time. But you do need to keep in mind that the public didn't care enough at this time to make sure that this didn't happen by increasing public funding. Most communities worked quite hard to get people who were different placed elsewhere, and for long periods of time, if possible.
Poke at the docs all you want, but they aren't the ones who sent their loved ones away or made laws allowing people to be locked up and have these techniques utilized. Poke at the families, but they had no alternatives as far as community options or funding. Poke at the staff, but they worked long hours with terrible pay doing a damnable job that few would choose, even today. Poke at the people who had the problems, and that will get you nowhere because these are mostly physiological problems.
Sorry - that leaves you and me and our wallets at tax time. Take a poke there and see how many people raise their hands and accept responsibility for the lack of funding and for the lack of interest in people with mental illness and the folks with intellectual disabilities. Bet you'll have damn few takers.
Ask how many would rather blame the docs, the hospitals, the staff, and sometimes the families, and that's where the majority of raised hands will be, because it's easier and we don't like looking in mirrors, especially when the mirror reflects back a distorted image and it's not even a funhouse mirror.
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
- Gallery: Lockdown
Mollie wrote:
Shepherd Pratt started all their renovations- destorying the past, what the hospital originally was like- pulling up carpet on units, taking away the stained glass- taking all of the history out of it just to make money with an adolescnet "retreat" ward (the retreat is for rich people that don't have safety issues and aren't locked in- they come and go as they please (only on the grounds i pressume) But yeah, i remember when it was a beautiful place with lovely architecture (sp?) and wide hallways and a bigger living room with couches instead of individual chairs like they have on the new unit. okay, enough rambling about SP...
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
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Uncle John's Nephew wrote:
Lynne, never mind about the 'chemical lobotomies'. I used to visit my uncle John in Whittingham Mental Hospital, he was a tall man with a pre-frontal lobotomy that made him look like Frankenstein's monster. They gave him electric shock treatment too. All I remember is this gentle giant who'd never been the same since the war. Even back in the seventies I thought that councelling a patient's mental health issues with a scalpel was just plain wrong.
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
- Gallery: Lockdown
Lynne wrote:
Yes, state workers as well - I say we shoot them all.
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
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Lynne wrote:
Yep. that's us asshat doctors, kin to the fatass nurses who are so damnably lazy. We are all retired now and living off the fat of the land in Florida from the trust funds set up when we manufactured all those bogus medications to torture the people we had sworn to serve.
Detestable swine, aren't we? :-)
Detestable swine, aren't we? :-)
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
- Gallery: Lockdown
BritChick wrote:
I want that as the door to my room! Although the mesh would have to be replaced with frosted glass for privacy like!
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
- Gallery: Lockdown
BritChick wrote:
No jokes, but that room is just a tiny bit smaller than my bedroom! I live in a box (not literally!) compared to the rest of the rooms in my house!
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
- Gallery: Lockdown
David wrote:
weapon on bed frame... uh golly huh gee.... i'm a state worker...took the mattress... never noticed that club on the bed frame.. when is my retirement again? uh hu he he ZZZzzz zzzz oops! what happened?!! oh yeah.... bringing this mattress to the dumpster.... ZZzzzzz ah.... nice dumpster... ZZZZZ snorrrrrre
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
- Gallery: Lockdown
David wrote:
Probably some experimental goop they made sure was not labeled (or traceable).... but all the same got shining reviews from mysterious sources.... for the docs to proudly administer! Then retire to Florida!
- Location: Norwich State Hospital
- Gallery: Lockdown