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

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|Title= Independence State Hospital
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|Title= Mendota Mental Health Institute
|Image= Independance.jpg
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|Image= Mendota03.jpg
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= One of 4 Mental Health Institute’s in the State of Iowa. – the others being Mt. Pleasant, Cherokee and Clarinda. The Independence state Hospital is a state run mental asylum in Independence, Iowa. Like many Kirkbrides, there is a labyrinth of underground tunnels which connect every building and were used to transport patients during winter, and a cemetery on the grounds. Little has been changed, so it looks similar to when it did when it first opened.
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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 “Mission Statement” of the Mental Health Institute, Independence is “To assure that the mentally ill adult citizens of Northeast Iowa and mentally ill children from Eastern Iowa have the opportunity to attain their maximum level of functioning by having available highest quality of inpatient psychiatric care through the institute.
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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 “Vision Statement” of the Mental Health Institute, Independence, is “To foster a therapeutic environment for persons with mental illness, which preserves patient’s self-respect and dignity, assures optimum care and treatment, and enhances patient functioning and independence.
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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.
  
During the middle of the 19th century, at about the time the Civil War was drawing to a close, there was a growing incidence of mental illness in Iowa. At that time, there was only one state facility for the mentally ill, located at Mt. Pleasant in the southeast corner of the state. In operation but a few years, it quickly became overcrowded. A bill passed by the Iowa Legislature on April 6, 1868, appropriated money for the building of a second hospital for the insane. It was to be located west of Independence. The new asylum became a reality when the doors opened and patients admitted on May 1, 1873.  [[Independence 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...