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

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|Title= Utah State Hospital
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|Title= Brockville Asylum for the Insane
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|Body= The Utah State Hospital began as the Territorial Insane Asylum in 1885 at Provo, Utah (which at the time was a days' travel from Salt Lake City). The particular site in Provo was some eight blocks from the nearest residence and was separated from the city by swampland and the city dump. The message this reveals about the prevailing attitudes regarding mental illness is unmistakable.
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|Body= The Brockville Psychiatric Hospital opened as the ‘Eastern Hospital for the Insane’ on a park-like setting overlooking the St. Lawrence River. The property, measuring 400 by 1,127 metres, was originally known as Pickens Point and extended from the Grand Trunk Railway on the north to the St. Lawrence River to the south. The cafeteria in the existing facility still retains the name ‘Pickens Point’, and is renowned for the high-quality, delicious meals offered to staff, clients and visitors alike. The hospital building was dominated by a seven-storey tower 128 feet high, and the foundation and detailed features were constructed using blue limestone quarried on the site, as well as “polished Bay of Fundy granite columns and arches of Gloucester stone from quarries in the Ottawa area.The patient population upon opening consisted of 73 individuals transferred to the site from Mimico, Ontario (near Orillia). Treatment ‘cottages’ were built on each side of the main building, three to the east for the women, three to the west for the men. Each cottage has 38 single rooms for patients as well as dormitories, day rooms, attendants’ rooms, storerooms, pantries, bathrooms, etc. At 12 feet wide with 12 foot high ceilings, the cottage corridors were large and airy. The original administrative/treatment/residential complex was designed as a single grouping of structures and embodied the architectural characteristics of a modified cottage hospital of the late 19th century. For the layout and design of the administration and main buildings, the Chief Architect reportedly utilized the plans and elevations of an existing operation, the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane at Middletown Connecticut, which had been erected in 1880-81.
  
The intervening years, however, have brought many changes: the swamp has been drained, the dump converted into a municipal park, and the city has expanded to the point that there is no longer a stark demarcation of where the "Asylum" begins.
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In 1903 the School of Nursing opened with one student who was given a two-year course in nursing the mentally ill. This was one of Ontario’s first nursing programs to specialize in psychiatric care. Enrollment in the program continued to grow as more hospitals specializing in mental health care opened across the province and the need for qualified nurses grew.  [[Brockville Asylum for the Insane|Click here for more...]]
 
 
From its origin the purpose of the Hospital was to treat the mentally ill and to return them to a normal level of functioning. In spite of their best efforts, however, in its early days the facility was little more than a human warehouse. In fact, by 1955 the population at the hospital was over 1,500 patients.
 
 
 
Over the years, tremendous advances in psychiatric medicine have changed the role of the Hospital to one of very active (and successful) treatment and rehabilitation. Today, it is truly a Hospital in every sense of the word.
 
 
 
Furthermore, the Hospital is no longer the primary deliverer of mental health services in Utah; this role changed with the creation in l969, of community mental health centers. Now residents throughout Utah can receive mental health services in their own community. The Hospital has changed its role from the only mental health treatment facility into a supporting role for the community mental health centers.  [[Utah State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
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Revision as of 02:53, 29 October 2012

Featured Article Of The Week

Brockville Asylum for the Insane


brockville4.png

The Brockville Psychiatric Hospital opened as the ‘Eastern Hospital for the Insane’ on a park-like setting overlooking the St. Lawrence River. The property, measuring 400 by 1,127 metres, was originally known as Pickens Point and extended from the Grand Trunk Railway on the north to the St. Lawrence River to the south. The cafeteria in the existing facility still retains the name ‘Pickens Point’, and is renowned for the high-quality, delicious meals offered to staff, clients and visitors alike. The hospital building was dominated by a seven-storey tower 128 feet high, and the foundation and detailed features were constructed using blue limestone quarried on the site, as well as “polished Bay of Fundy granite columns and arches of Gloucester stone from quarries in the Ottawa area.” The patient population upon opening consisted of 73 individuals transferred to the site from Mimico, Ontario (near Orillia). Treatment ‘cottages’ were built on each side of the main building, three to the east for the women, three to the west for the men. Each cottage has 38 single rooms for patients as well as dormitories, day rooms, attendants’ rooms, storerooms, pantries, bathrooms, etc. At 12 feet wide with 12 foot high ceilings, the cottage corridors were large and airy. The original administrative/treatment/residential complex was designed as a single grouping of structures and embodied the architectural characteristics of a modified cottage hospital of the late 19th century. For the layout and design of the administration and main buildings, the Chief Architect reportedly utilized the plans and elevations of an existing operation, the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane at Middletown Connecticut, which had been erected in 1880-81.

In 1903 the School of Nursing opened with one student who was given a two-year course in nursing the mentally ill. This was one of Ontario’s first nursing programs to specialize in psychiatric care. Enrollment in the program continued to grow as more hospitals specializing in mental health care opened across the province and the need for qualified nurses grew. Click here for more...