Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I can't imagine how horrible this must have been for some of the patients. Virginia -----Original Message----- >From: rwalker <rwalker@saber.net> >Sent: May 29, 2010 11:18 AM >To: NORCAL Post <NORCAL@rootsweb.com> >Subject: Re: [NORCAL] State Hospitals > >In 1956, as part of my rotation as a Student Nurse, a group of us were >sent to Napa State Hospital for our 3 month Psychiatric training. We >lived upstairs in a cottage that had patients below, who were judged to >be stable enough to be out on the grounds during the day. At that time >Napa State Hospital, or Imola as it was called, was a small city unto >itself. There was a farm, a cannery, and other places where the inmates >could work, like the laundry, or in kitchen prepping food. There was a >small store where people could buy candy, magazines, and trinkets. There >was a large auditorium that was used for various purposes, church >services on Sundays, and once a week it was turned into a roller skating >rink. > >All kinds of people were there for all kinds of reasons. They still had >the old locked wards for the most severely psychotic. The "snake pit" >wards, where they still had the old restraining boxes that they "didn't >use" any more. These were coffin sized boxes with wire mesh panels on >the sides and the lid which was locked over the patient. Body wrap >restraints like muslin body bags were still used. And they did use cold >water on people wrapped to "calm them down". What I saw there that >troubled me the most was the ECT/EST- electro shock therapy. Although >there were patients who said it helped them. One woman who was manic >depressive always let the staff know when she felt a manic phase coming >on, and would be given shock therapy. Others said it helped stop the >voices in their heads, or stop painful memories that haunted them. But >it was difficult to watch. > >As part of our Psych education, we sat in on patient conferences. >Psychiatry was very Freudian oriented then and there was always some >"sexually repressed" parent (usually the mother) who was blamed for the >patient's condition, especially schizophrenia. One of their prize >patients was a woman who had been lobotomized. She was considered one of >their success stories. I no longer remember what her original diagnosis >was, but she told us in flat tones, with an expressionless face that she >was "much better now." And who knows, she might have been. > >This was a new type of psych training for Nursing students. We were the >first class, (along with some students from UCSF) who stayed at the >facility. After a two week orientation we were assigned individual >patients to work with. I was assigned a 16 year old schizophrenic girl, >who was lost in her own world, and didn't talk. I took her out for walks >every day. She wasn't allowed out on her own. We would walk to the >little store and get a candy bar, then take a walk around one of the >little lakes by the farm. On Thursdays I took her roller skating. I >always did all the talking, telling her about my life and family, and >things I did on the weekends at home. I began telling her before I was >due to leave that I was going, and that another student would come to be >her new friend. She never said a word until my last day, and then asked >what she would do without me. I assured her that in a couple of weeks >she would meet someone new to be her friend. I heard later, that having >the students assigned to her helped her to start communicating again, >and within a year was well enough to go home on weekend passes. There >were similar stories for some of the other patients assigned to students. > >There were wards for all kinds of people. There were children who were >seriously disturbed, and there were a couple of wards for teens. One for >psychotic and violent, and the other for teens with emotional problems. > >And there were all kinds of people there--including some who shouldn't >have been. I remember one sweet grandmotherly lady whose family sent her >because they said she went crazy after "The Change." The staff knew she >was perfectly normal, but kept her because she had no where else to go. >And there were others like her-- women sent because of supposedly >becoming strange, or depressed while going through menopause. Most were >depressed, either from the effects of menopause, or for being committed. >Another I remember was a cute 15 year old girl from a ranching family >in another county. She had been repeatedly molested by members of the >family, who when she resisted and fought back, said she was crazy and >violent and had her committed. The staff kept her there for protective >custody. There was no way for her to be put into foster care, because >the family was prominent and had too much pull to be charged with the >molestations. Another young man was from a prominent wine country family >who had been in an auto accident and had suffered severe trauma to his >head. He was "not right" and so the family had him committed. >Apparently he had occasional seizures or violent episodes. Now some of >these people, including the youngsters, were truly severely disturbed, >and even today with medications could not be cared for at home. > >And that is where the hospitals served the best. People who could not >live in "normal" society had a place that was essentially safe, had >clothing, food and shelter, and didn't have to live under a bridge >somewhere. Yes, they were forced to stay there, and yes, as medications >became available for treatment, they were forced to take their meds. In >fact, they had little choice in whatever treatment was deemed >necessary. Now in a way we are back to where we were before the >hospitals were established. Communities do not have enough money to take >care of their own people with psychiatric needs. When I worked for a >local county health department, mental health funds were the first to be >chopped. There was eventually no place in our county for children with >mental health problems that needed in-patient care, and the adults >didn't fare much better. I don't know what the answer is. > > > >----------------------------------------- >NORCAL ARCHIVES: >http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ >Enter NORCAL. 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