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

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|Title= Danville State Hospital
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|Title= Mendota Mental Health Institute
|Image= Danville Cont 03.jpg
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|Image= Mendota03.jpg
 
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|Body= From the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare web page: Danville State Hospital for the mentally ill, located one mile southeast of Danville, Pennsylvania, was incorporated on April 13, 1869. In October 1872, three years after the cornerstone of the Block Building was laid, Danville State Hospital formally was opened. By September 30, 1873, 138 male and 72 female patients had been admitted for treatment. Other maintenance buildings had been erected by this time in order to increase the size and services of the facility.
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|Body= Mendota opened on July 14, 1860 when it admitted a patient who had been brought all the way from Oconto County...a long trip by horse and wagon. Even though the hospital was not yet ready to open, that Saturday it was decided that, because of the distance the patient had been brought, he should be received. Thus began Mendota's ready response to the needs of patients and communities, which has been its tradition.
  
The land on which Danville State Hospital stands today was originally a tract owned by pioneer Daniel Montgomery, cofounder (with his father) of Danville and for whom the town was named. He willed it to his son, Daniel Strawbridge Montgomery, who gave it to his daughter, Margaret. Margaret married W.W. Pineo. As Executor of her Estate, the latter conveyed it to the State Hospital. Its 250 acres were brought for $26,600 and Danville citizens backed the project by contributing $16,123.12 of that total.
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Mendota has gone through many changes since then, some of them dramatized in the changes in its name. It opened as an "Asylum", appropriate in an era when little could be done for the mentally ill except to house and care for them...i.e. to give them asylum...when their families and communities could no longer cope with their needs.
  
The late Dr. Horrace Victor Pike (1877-1948) was a great innovator at Danville State Hospital. He initiated the first mental health clinic in state hospital service and was the first clinical director in the state under the Bureau of Mental Health, Department of Welfare. He was a specialist in neuropsychiatry, a widely known nerve specialist and the author of over fifty papers in the fields of mental hygiene, child guidance and psychiatry.
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In a later era, when patients were recognized as having an illness...mental illness...the name was changed to Mendota State Hospital, reflecting its responsibility for providing treatment.
  
Dr. Robert Gatski, Superintendent for 1955-1977, was the first to introduce chlorpromazine in the treatment of patients at Danville State Hospital. Since then, many new psychotropic medications have been developed. These medications have been successful in the treatment of mental illness and have facilitated the patients' placement back into the community. [[Danville State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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In more recent times, with the discovery of psychiatric medications and with new approaches (some of which resulted from research at Mendota itself) it became possible for the mentally ill to be treated in community hospitals and clinics. But there remained a need for a place for those who required more specialized treatment than most community hospitals and clinics could provide, and where the tradition of research, education, and consultation that Mendota had already established could continue. Mendota was then changed to its present name of Mendota Mental Health Institute. [[Mendota Mental Health Institute|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 04:45, 2 August 2020

Featured Article Of The Week

Mendota Mental Health Institute


Mendota03.jpg

Mendota opened on July 14, 1860 when it admitted a patient who had been brought all the way from Oconto County...a long trip by horse and wagon. Even though the hospital was not yet ready to open, that Saturday it was decided that, because of the distance the patient had been brought, he should be received. Thus began Mendota's ready response to the needs of patients and communities, which has been its tradition.

Mendota has gone through many changes since then, some of them dramatized in the changes in its name. It opened as an "Asylum", appropriate in an era when little could be done for the mentally ill except to house and care for them...i.e. to give them asylum...when their families and communities could no longer cope with their needs.

In a later era, when patients were recognized as having an illness...mental illness...the name was changed to Mendota State Hospital, reflecting its responsibility for providing treatment.

In more recent times, with the discovery of psychiatric medications and with new approaches (some of which resulted from research at Mendota itself) it became possible for the mentally ill to be treated in community hospitals and clinics. But there remained a need for a place for those who required more specialized treatment than most community hospitals and clinics could provide, and where the tradition of research, education, and consultation that Mendota had already established could continue. Mendota was then changed to its present name of Mendota Mental Health Institute. Click here for more...