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

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{{FAformat
|Title= Allentown State Hospital
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|Title= Mendota Mental Health Institute
|Image= AllentownSH_2010.jpg
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|Image= Mendota03.jpg
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= The first step for the establishment of a homeopathic state hospital for the insane in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was taken by the Germantown Homeopathic Medical Society of Philadelphia, which appointed a committee of twelve of its members, of which Isaac W. Heysinger, M. D., was chairman, for the purpose of introducing and furthering a bill before the State Legislature to provide for the selection of a site and the construction of a state hospital for the care of the insane to be under homeopathic management and control. After several unsuccessful attempts a bill was finally passed by both houses of the Pennsylvania Legislature, June 25-26, 1901, entitled, " An Act to Provide for the Selection of a Site and the Erection of a State Hospital for the Treatment of the Insane Under Homeopathic Management, to be Called the Homeopathic State Hospital for the Insane, and Making an Appropriation Therefor."
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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.
  
On July 18, 1901, the bill was approved by Gov. Wm. A. Stone, except as to Section 5, which provided for an appropriation of $300,000 to enable the commissioners to purchase land and commence the erection of buildings, from which the Governor withheld his approval in the sum of $250,000 because of insufficient state revenue. The commission received several propositions from places within the territory of the twelve counties comprising the hospital district. During December, 1902, they visited a number of the sites offered to them in Lehigh, Northampton, Monroe, Bradford and Wayne counties. Three places in Lehigh County were under consideration aid finally the section in Hanover Township, near Allentown, was chosen upon which to locate the new hospital, the tract secured by the state comprising 209 acres. The corner-stone was laid June 27, 1904.  [[Allentown State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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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.
 +
 
 +
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.  [[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...