4,081 Comments for Norwich State Hospital

The Salmon building is very cool, it's like a trip back into the old school days of locking up the crazies to the point of confinement. Very close to a prison. Maybe worse, in some ways.

Along the bottom,the inside of the firebox and the inserts above the mantle look like soap stone, i hope someone is decent enough to save this, i am sure it is one of a kind.

Nope, nothing left.

Corporate thinking at it's best, sounds like something from a Dilbert comic.

I'll take a day at the beach over that any day

Looks like they're racing

Hehehehe, yeah, same idea, much stronger. A good lightbox will let you get 10,000 lux at roughly 3 feet away (this is about the same amount of light as you would get on a bright spring morning). Of course, most have filtered out the harmful UV rays, which are the ones that give you a tan, so you can spend all day in front of it and still be pale and pasty.

Dr Sketch,
Down here they're called tanning beds, but they're not anywhere near that expensive, LOL

That door needs a slot at the bottom to slide "the steaming bedpan" through.

Lynne, those newer sterilizers in your links look so space age compared to these dinosaurs. These must be REALLY old then. Wonder how old?

Thanks, Lynne. I will check them out when I get home tonight. I can't open them here at work... Too bad we have "websense" here......yuk...
: ` (

I actually feel very bad for the people who were released out of those places onto the street. What a culture shock for them! Who would be there when they had their out of control episode in some back alley somewhere? Many are not capable or willing to voluntarily seek help or refuge. These days younger people with meds and support can enjoy not living in the hospital environment. However, the ones who knew of no other type of existence are still suffering on the streets today as abused homeless victims. The system meant well, but it did cause many problems when the patients were released out of the large hospitals so suddenly. Each case is so different, some are better off in a group care facility, and some can handle being out on their own or at least with partial hospitialization where their activity is monitored and they are being supported. I have a relative like that; he has paranoid schizophrenia. I think he is living an apartment building with other people who have problems, but they all have their own little apartment. He does really well, I see him a couple times a year. I am glad the system is working so well for him and helping him get along in society. I know he does go to "partial" as a part of his support services. He was even involved in community activism involving mental health issues. He is very intelligent, and has so much potential. We are the same age and we hung out alot growing up. We were always great friends and did lots of fun stuff. He was diagnoed at about age 17, which is pretty typical of people with schizophrenia.

Thanks, Lynne, for the postcards.
I can see it now:
"Having a great time, wish you were here"

Right, I think I'll do my sightseeing elsewhere.

No need to. For the most part you learn to live around it, and find a way to keep going on. It is worse in some people than in others, but there isn't really a need to be hospitalized unless you are suicidal from it. Try to get as much light as possible, go outside when you can, and if there is a facility that offers light box treatments, check out what they offer. You can purchase home light boxes, but they are usually thousands of dollars, and (in my town anyway) there is a doctor who offers light box treatment for $25/hour (and you usually only do 1 hour). If you want more info. on S.A.D. (catchy, no?), write me: purplefire@hotmail.com

One of the things they tried at Whittingham was my gaurdian was a day patient she told us as kids that she was working full time as a cleaner at the hospital and we never questioned this, the hosptial had a policy that if the patient was given as normal a life as possible they could be intergrated, THAT was supposed to be forward thinking in the very early 70's now the UK has a high proportion of homeless mentally ill people on the streets. Whittingham is now waiting as like Danvers to be turned into housing, it had it's own rail link, post office and church even a duck pond which was very unusual given the fact residents were likely to throw themselves in! I spent half of my childhood being brought up by a relative that suffered mental illness and until recently did not know that they were an actual patient. Given responsibilties earned a wage and brought home the bacon. I know this does not work in every patient all people suffer in different ways but my Gaurdian was given a chance. Whittingham tried the intergration system, in house fighting did not help either when they knew the Government at least in the UK were no longer willing to fund such Institution's.
This so called gaurdian accused my dad of being the Yorkshire Ripper and was arrested and kept in custody for 4 days turns out he had got into a drunken fight in town and been scratched by his mates girlfriend, I wont bother going into detail on how I spent my childhood with a gaurdian who really should have been a full time patient (use your imagination's it was not pleasant) but the whole intergration thing did nothing for me it just gave the Government an excuse to stop funding important facilities were people could feel they actually belonged good or bad. No one is ever going to agree on wether these places are good or bad in my case I hope there will always be somewhere for mentally ill people to go too. You never know when the balance is going to tip and those great big doors are going to open for yourself it is people like you Lynne that keep us informed and up to date which I am quite happy to say is a good thing. You don't have to have a mental illness to know what it is like. Living with someone who does is not a barrel of laughs. It is very Sad :(