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June 3, 2013 Doctor's legacy transcends Oregon State Hospital, famous film

An actor from the Academy Award-winning film "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" was a star in real life at the Oregon State Hospital. Dr. Dean Brooks died last week. His daughters and friends told KATU News that Dr. Brooks was a passionate advocate for treating people with mental illness.

June 3, 2013 Closing of Dorothea Dix Hospital marks failure of state reforms

On Dix Hill, the cold December stillness only serves to reinforce the feeling of abandonment. These splendid, rolling grounds, overlooking the center of Raleigh from the south, were occupied not so long ago by a state psychiatric hospital established in 1848 that had grown to serve a patient population of 3,000. The staff, working around the clock seven days a week, numbered two or three times that many. A working farm comprised the back 1,300 acres. It's gone now, turned (most of it) into the new Centennial Campus for N.C. State University. Historic Dorothea Dix Hospital, which in 1974 comprised 282 buildings on 2,354 acres of land, according to state records, has since been reduced to 306 acres of hospital property and 40 buildings, many of which are empty or half-empty. Its patient count is down to fewer than 160 and dropping fast. It would be a ghost town except for the 1,400 officials and staff of the Department of Health and Human Services spread thinly in 24 of the remaining buildings. If and when Dix closes, their presence may serve as a reminder that North Carolina was once a leader in mental health though, after a decade of "reforms," it no longer is.

June 2,2013 Idaho state hospital installs headstones

An effort to place headstones on the graves of former patients at State Hospital South in southeastern Idaho is moving forward with another 120 set in the cemetery that holds more than 1,000 people. The Idaho State Journal reported that hospital staff, residents and others took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the State Hospital South Cemetery on Tuesday. The 127-year-old hospital previously called the Idaho Insane Asylum once housed patients for years, or until they died. Some of the patients underwent lobotomies and other early procedures in attempts to help sufferers of mental illnesses that were poorly understood at the time.

June 1, 2013 Tragic chapter of Crownsville State Hospital's legacy

One image shows African-Americans lounging on the grass on Family Day; in another photo, obviously staged, nurses attend to a smiling patient dressed in a coat and tie. Other snapshots show an adult chained to a wall, a child with her frail arms strapped to a chair, men crammed into a windowless dorm room. This was life at what became known as Crownsville State Hospital, now a group of buildings boarded up and crumbling on Generals Highway.

May 14, 2013 Eastern State Hospital honors reburied remains once 'lost to history'

The faint rumbles and thuds of construction could be heard as a group of people gathered around a large patch of dirt Tuesday in the Eastern State Hospital Cemetery. Under the dirt patch lay the recently relocated remains of 178 presumed former patients of Eastern State Hospital Lexington. The bodies had originally rested where a road is being built in preparation for the new Bluegrass Community and Technical College.

May 6, 2013 Napa State Hospital to get a history of its very own

Napa State Hospital, once as defining a symbol of Napa as wine, is the subject of a planned book that will capture its dramatic history in photos and personal reminiscences. The author, archivist Patricia Prestinary, is asking the community to share photos, particularly from the 1970s and ’80s, that capture hospital life before the facility was turned into a medium-security psychiatric facility.

April 18, 2013 Our Legacy: Remembering Crownsville State Hospital

They arrived by train to build the Crownsville State Hospital for the Negro Insane where most would live out their lives until death. In death some went home to be buried with family, some were sent to the University of Maryland Medical School, cadavers for young medical students to study, and others sustained autopsies at Crownsville State Hospital and were buried with numbers on their headstones at the end of Farm Road.

April 2, 2013 Abandoned Henryton hospital slated for demolition

Perched on a wooded bluff in rural southeastern Carroll County, the old Henryton State Hospital bears silent witness to the ravages of decades of neglect and vandalism. First opened in 1923, the 18-building complex that once housed the sick and handicapped now appears beyond hope of recovery itself. Windows gape. Trees reach to the sky through roofs that have caved in or burned. Graffiti and vines cover stucco and brick walls. Broken glass and beer cans litter the ground, along with debris from the crumbling structures. The Henryton complex near Marriottsville, closed since 1985, has deteriorated over the years from white elephant to potentially dangerous nuisance. Worried that someone is going to get hurt, local officials have pressed the state to demolish it, and now the end may be near, with a state official vowing to try to start work in May.

March 22, 2013 Was closing the Rochester State Hospital a good idea?

Three decades ago the Rochester State Hospital closed its doors to patients living with mental illness, aspart of an effort to reintegrate patients into the community. Backers of the move thought closing the hospital would encourage services to help patients live independently, improve their quality of life and save money.

March 11, 2013 Former mental hospital, historic buildings' fate undecided

As their fate hangs in the balance, the historic buildings still standing at the former Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital will be the subject of a presentation to the Mount Tabor Historical Society on Thursday. Preserve Greystone, a nonprofit group, will lead the discussion on whether to refurbish or demolish the structures at 7 p.m. at The Bethel, in the Trinity Park section of Mount Tabor. Meanwhile, the draft of a long-awaited feasibility study on Greystone is in the hands of officials in the state Treasury Department, and could soon be released to the public.

March 15, 2013 Local photographer documents Fulton State Hospital ahead of bond issue

While Fulton State Hospital fights to pass a bond issue to construct new buildings for the aging mental health facility, Craig Chapman is working to preserve it. Chapman doesn’t wish to stop the bulldozers that hospital administrators hope will soon bring down older, unusable structures and pave the way for a new hospital, however. He wants to immortalize the architectural history with his camera.

February 26, 2013 Study to determine fate of Taunton State Hospital on track for completion by end of year

A study on the state’s mental health system is on track to be completed by the end of the year, with initial results about the situation in southeastern Massachusetts to be released in mid-March and a preliminary statewide report due in late November.

February 24, 2013 Proposal to build resort at former Northern State Hospital draws support

A proposal to build a destination resort on the grounds of the former Northern State Hospital gained support this month, after the Port of Skagit Board of Commissioners and the Skagit County Commissioners wrote letters agreeing to explore land-use changes necessary for the plan. In a letter dated Feb. 12, the port commissioners cited job creation, a boost for Sedro-Woolley’s and the county’s tax base and “spin­off” businesses as reasons to get behind the project.