The "state " hospitals in Florida used the patients as guinea pigs trying out new medications on them. And, as I recall it, if a cure seemed to be found, local hospitals or clinics tried these out on their patients but, with one difference...they had the patients permission. My mother was one who gave her permission (free treatment) as she went through "her change" at the young age of her mid-thirties. As I recall it was some kind of electrical shock treatments and they helped her tremendously. This was during the depression and we had no money to pay. She trusted her doctor as he assured her they would not harm her. Of course, he could not promise her they would help. Incidentally, even though some said it was not possible for her to go through "the change" that early, she and her doctor lived to see me go through it in my late th irties. I had no trouble convincing my Oby that that was my problem when I told him . Ella ----- Original Message ----- From: "EdrieAnne Broughton" <edrieanne@gmail.com> To: <norcal@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2010 12:44 PM Subject: Re: [NORCAL] State Hospitals > My sister was a 'teacher' in a day program for adults with cerebral palsy > and other causes of brain damage. All of her clients were severely > affected > physically and had various states of mental capacity. She had one client > who was in her late 30s and had been institutionalized at Stockton State > Hospital since she was a pre-teen. A lifetime of anti-psychotic drugs had > left her in a wheelchair with severe osteoporosis. A moderate nudge could > break a bone. I don't know what her original diagnosis was but her > biggest > problem at this later stage was periodic seizures. These nearly always > led > to an ambulance ride to the hospital. My sister would always end up with > nearly as many bruises as her client but without the broken bones. The > job > was draining and she finally burned out and moved on. She heard about a > year later that the woman had passed on. A lot of medications and > treatments had been used over the years in State Hospitals with inadequate > testing. > EdrieAnne > > > ----------------------------------------- > NORCAL ARCHIVES: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ > Enter NORCAL. Browse by month. > Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. > ----------------------------------------- > To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to > NORCAL@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NORCAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message