This morning I drove north to tour what used to be called the Eastern Ohio Insane Asylum. A woman named Chris, who gave the program talk was very knowledgeable about it's history.
It was built in 1892 by the state. The buildings plans were based on a Dr Thomas Story Kirkbride, who believed that if people with mental issues could live in beautiful surroundings, with views of manicured lovely grounds, seen from any window of the buildings, that their countenance would surely improve, if not heal.
And so this self sufficient little town with hundreds of residents came to be. Eventually the asylum acquired several thousand acres. There they raised cattle, pigs, chickens, planted gardens and orchards, and lived off their land. The residents did much of the work in the barns, fields and kitchens. Many Kirkland-planned facilities looked like huge mansions, 4 and 5 stories tall. The plan put an administration building in the center, then the females lived off wings on one side, the males on the other. The patients who were the least ill and probably would not be staying long lived closest to the center building. The long term care patients lived further away, and the 'violent' ones lived on the edges, to the back.
At this hospital, I learned that it was decided instead of building one huge (and I'm talking castle size) building they would instead spread out. So they built a few hundred cottages on the grounds. The cottages are all now gone, but we saw pictures on a power point program and some were really beautiful homes.
Chris said most of the years the asylum was in operation, that the administrator lived on the grounds with his family. She said she has spoken with people who remember the administrators children being picked up by the school bus. Imagine how that would feel?
During the time Chris was employed there, a new rule said the residents could no longer be required to work where they lived. The livestock had long ago been sold, and the fields sold to a golf course, strip mall, etc. She spoke of one man who always wanted to sweep the dining room after meals. He would sweep, then they would give him his pipe and he'd sit down and smoke it awhile. She said he was very upset when he was told he could no longer sweep.
In the main lobby, there is a little display case with a few archives. It includes a mannequin wearing an old nurse uniform, and a ledger that I read with lots of interest. It's opened so you can only see one page dated 1921. Most of the who people entered there died there, though a few were only there a few weeks. It listed occupations such as farmer and housewife, and ages which were mostly 30's and 40's. It listed country of origin and it was amazing that almost no one was 'American' but it said Czechoslovakia, Hungary, English, Germany, Russia. Some of the reasons for admission were lunacy, menopause, alcoholism and drug addiction. There is also a straight jacket and a metal mesh mask! I also just read here on the internet that families facing the 'embarrassment' of a pregnant daughter would sometimes put her in an insane asylum.
Chris talked a lot about its operation today, in a clean modern large building. She stopped numerous times to give us details through out her power point presentation, then took us on a tour. One area is called 'the mall'. Those who are allowed can shop at a store for clothes, books and magazines & misc. items. There is a library, a music area, an art room, and a kitchenette where they teach cooking. There is a beautiful large gymnasium, the normal size seen in any high school. There are stained glass art works which I heard were made by a husband and wife team from Akron. We saw the dentist office, several medical type examination rooms and a few offices. And there is a large outdoor area with a large gazebo and a basketball court. They even have their own police department there.
Even though it sounds like I'm sugar coating this experience, it was evident that we were in a high security building. There was lots of locking and unlocking of doors. We'd been instructed not to wear anything revealing, too short, too low, or too tight, and they didn't have to tell me twice. The people who are here have committed crimes or tried to hurt themselves and are kept there under the order of a judge, who she said comes once a week to hear assorted patients requests. They are there because they are incompetent to stand trial, or not guilty by reason of insanity.
We were walked through three of the patient areas. Some people had been there a few days, some for 20 years. I won't describe those people in detail, but they weren't very scary or threatening. She said that if there was a yellow sign on an outside ward door, it meant to look before you unlocked it, because someone inside had tried to escape. Every door we entered had a yellow sign on it. So I was a little nervous about that. But they were all relaxed and most were sitting in groups chatting. Most of them waved to us and I wasn't sure if we should wave back, but sometimes we did. Some made comments which were, well, not inappropriate, but off-the-wall.
Their rooms have two beds and have all kinds of safety features to prevent patients from hanging themselves or hurting each other. They were all new and clean looking, and just looked like a regular room to me.
Chris has spent much of her career working in the community. She was very smart, very capable, and I'd want someone like her in my court. She spoke passionately about the problems that people go through when they have serious mental illness. For some years she did the admissions, being the first person a patient would see after some explosive event brought them to her, usually by ambulance or police car.
She said everyone was frightened or very upset and it was up to her to calm the situation down. She said she would explain that she was going to have to ask a lot of questions, but would they like a drink of water first? She hoped that they would later remember that in a worst time of their life, someone offered them a drink of water.
She described the common problem of patients not wanting to take their medications. But she understood it too. For example, she asked us if we were told we had to take a medication, but we could expect to gain about 50 pounds while on it, would we? Or we needed to take a medication, but then couldn't perform sexually, would we take it? Or we couldn't have a glass of wine or some beers with our friends, or we couldn't function at work because we couldn't think clearly, would we?
So it left me a lot to think about, but first I wanted to read about the Kirkbride Hospitals. Check out the link I have found to see pictures of these magnificent buildings.
http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/index.html
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