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

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|Title= Friends Hospital
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|Title= Philadelphia State Hospital
|Image= Friends.gif
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|Image= PSHphoto4.jpg
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= The original building, now known as the 'Scattergood Building' was designed to be North facing, and 322 feet high with a stone edifice. It was placed at considerable distance from the public road, which is now Roosevelt Blvd., some five hundred feet. Two wings, 100 feet long, flanking the front of the structure were completed on both sides. However, unlike Kirkbride's plans, they were not intended to discriminate between a clinical population. This building was made fellow to a small adjoining library, as well as a hospital garden, which was perceived as being crucial to the treatment of the insane in the 19th century.
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|Body= Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry (PSH) was a psychiatric hospital in northeast Philadelphia, first city and later state-operated. During its tenure as a psychiatric hospital it was known by several names- Philadelphia State Hospital, Byberry State Hospital, Byberry City Farms, and the Philadelphia Hospital for Mental Diseases. However, most of the local population referred to it simply as "Byberry". Like many state facilities of the period, it was designated to care for individuals with various cognitive and psychiatric conditions, ranging from intellectual disabilities to forensic pathologies. When operational, it was located on a large sprawling campus within the Somerton neighborhood of northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Byberry stood in operation from 1903 until 1990, when it became nationally infamous for patient abuse, warehousing of human beings, and extreme neglect exhibited towards its many residents. At its zenith in the late 1960's, it was the largest state hospital in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and held a clinical population of over seven thousand psychiatric patients. Today, much of the physical site of the former state hospital has been demolished, and the land has been sold off to local redevelopers, who have transformed much of the campus into a residential community for seniors. Many of the former patients were discharged to: local boarding homes, community rehabilitative residences (CRR), long-term structure residences (LTSR), community living arrangements (CLA) and outpatient community clinics (BSU's). Acute patients from Byberry were transferred to other state psychiatric facilities, such as those at Norristown State Hospital and Haverford State Hospital. However, a large portion of those patients discharged had no disposition at release.  [[Philadelphia State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
The asylum was originally purposed for the care and treatment for members of the Society of Friends exclusively. However, with a change in Pennsylvania law, the Board of Managers put it to a vote and elected to remove the sectarian restrictions in 1834. Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, the father of American Psychiatry is record as having done his medical residency at Friends Asylum, before going on to found the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1841.
 
 
 
As with many asylums, a superintendent's house was constructed on the campus in 1859, for the easy access of medical staff. Likewise, the steward's house was built nearby in 1910. These buildings, Lawnside and Greystone, were operational until recently, until they were re-purposed by the administration of Friends Hospital.  [[Friends Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
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Revision as of 05:44, 18 February 2013

Featured Article Of The Week

Philadelphia State Hospital


PSHphoto4.jpg

Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry (PSH) was a psychiatric hospital in northeast Philadelphia, first city and later state-operated. During its tenure as a psychiatric hospital it was known by several names- Philadelphia State Hospital, Byberry State Hospital, Byberry City Farms, and the Philadelphia Hospital for Mental Diseases. However, most of the local population referred to it simply as "Byberry". Like many state facilities of the period, it was designated to care for individuals with various cognitive and psychiatric conditions, ranging from intellectual disabilities to forensic pathologies. When operational, it was located on a large sprawling campus within the Somerton neighborhood of northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Byberry stood in operation from 1903 until 1990, when it became nationally infamous for patient abuse, warehousing of human beings, and extreme neglect exhibited towards its many residents. At its zenith in the late 1960's, it was the largest state hospital in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and held a clinical population of over seven thousand psychiatric patients. Today, much of the physical site of the former state hospital has been demolished, and the land has been sold off to local redevelopers, who have transformed much of the campus into a residential community for seniors. Many of the former patients were discharged to: local boarding homes, community rehabilitative residences (CRR), long-term structure residences (LTSR), community living arrangements (CLA) and outpatient community clinics (BSU's). Acute patients from Byberry were transferred to other state psychiatric facilities, such as those at Norristown State Hospital and Haverford State Hospital. However, a large portion of those patients discharged had no disposition at release. Click here for more...