Difference between revisions of "Portal:Featured Article Of The Week"

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|Title= Delaware State Hospital
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|Title= Western State Hospital Hopkinsville
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|Body= In the late 1800’s, the New Castle County Trustees of the Poor had erected a facility to house the insane persons of the county, but in 1889 the Legislature felt it would be better to operate the New Castle facility for the benefit of the citizens of the whole state. Thus, for the sum of $75,000, the property was transferred from the custody of the Trustees of the Poor to the custody of a newly created State Board of Trustees of the Insane. In 1891, the Insane Department and Hospital became the Delaware State Hospital at Farnhurst.
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|Body= Some time in the year 1863 the present able and successful Superintendent, Dr. James Rodman, took charge of the asylum. The total number of patients received and treated up to October 10, 1871, was 1.273. of whom 321 were then in the asylum. Calculated upon the number of patients received, 50.847 per cent were discharged restored, eight were discharged more or less improved, two were unimproved, one escaped and twenty-two died. There is (nearly) one insane person (October, 1871) in every 1,000 persons of the population, at least 1,400 in Kentucky, of whom there is room in the two asylums for only 850, and both are full.
  
Around the turn of the century, pleas to the Legislature for additional buildings went unheeded, so, in 1904, the Trustees took funds from the general hospital fund and erected a new Tuberculosis Building. The Legislature was less than pleased at having their authority usurped and severely chastised the Trustees with new legislation in 1905. The Trustees were flatly prohibited from erecting any new buildings whatsoever, and moreover, any funds received by the Trustees from other than State sources were to be placed in a special emergency fund which was to be used only when appropriated funds were exhausted.
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The Kentucky General Assembly changed the name of the hospital to Western State Hospital in 1919. Investigations by state officials and the Welfare Committee in the late 1930s resulted in renovations and higher standards. In 1950, 2,200 patients were admitted as "incompetent" with loss of rights. Tranquilizers came into use in 1955. By the late 1950s, several psychotropic medications were being marketed and there was a deinstitutionalization effort to weed out patients that did not need to be at the facility.
  
During the early part of this century, there also had been increasing concern over the cohabitation of the criminally insane with patients having less severe psychological problems. This dangerous situation arose due to the desire of the New Castle County Workhouse administration to place their criminally insane prisoners in an institution better suited to handle their special problems. However, the admission of these prisoners to the State Hospital created a difficult situation there as well, by jeopardizing the safety of the other patients. Thus, in 1947, the Trustees were permitted to create a Department of the Criminally Insane to segregate these inmates and address more specifically their individual needs.   [[Delaware State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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Today Western State Hospital is a 222-bed psychiatric hospital serving individuals 18 or older from a 34-county area in western Kentucky. It provides acute psychiatric care for mentally ill patients, psychiatric rehabilitation for chronic mental illness and provides acute psychiatric care for geriatric patients. Its other two buildings include Western State Nursing Facility — a 144-bed treatment facility for mentally disabled geriatric residents that provides care for adults with severe and persistent mental illness who require nursing-facility level of care. Patients can only be admitted as transfers from state psychiatric facilities within Kentucky. [[Western State Hospital Hopkinsville|Click here for more...]]
 
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Latest revision as of 05:27, 9 June 2024

Featured Article Of The Week

Western State Hospital Hopkinsville


WHS3.jpg

Some time in the year 1863 the present able and successful Superintendent, Dr. James Rodman, took charge of the asylum. The total number of patients received and treated up to October 10, 1871, was 1.273. of whom 321 were then in the asylum. Calculated upon the number of patients received, 50.847 per cent were discharged restored, eight were discharged more or less improved, two were unimproved, one escaped and twenty-two died. There is (nearly) one insane person (October, 1871) in every 1,000 persons of the population, at least 1,400 in Kentucky, of whom there is room in the two asylums for only 850, and both are full.

The Kentucky General Assembly changed the name of the hospital to Western State Hospital in 1919. Investigations by state officials and the Welfare Committee in the late 1930s resulted in renovations and higher standards. In 1950, 2,200 patients were admitted as "incompetent" with loss of rights. Tranquilizers came into use in 1955. By the late 1950s, several psychotropic medications were being marketed and there was a deinstitutionalization effort to weed out patients that did not need to be at the facility.

Today Western State Hospital is a 222-bed psychiatric hospital serving individuals 18 or older from a 34-county area in western Kentucky. It provides acute psychiatric care for mentally ill patients, psychiatric rehabilitation for chronic mental illness and provides acute psychiatric care for geriatric patients. Its other two buildings include Western State Nursing Facility — a 144-bed treatment facility for mentally disabled geriatric residents that provides care for adults with severe and persistent mental illness who require nursing-facility level of care. Patients can only be admitted as transfers from state psychiatric facilities within Kentucky. Click here for more...