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

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|Title= Rock County Insane Asylum
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|Title= Mendota Mental Health Institute
|Image= RockCountyAsylum.jpg
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|Image= Mendota03.jpg
 
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|Body= In 1881 The Rock County Asylum opened. Through the efforts of the State Board of Charities and Reform, a statute was enacted that finally crystallized the county care system. The operation of the Rock County Asylum became official in 1881. Residents were referred to as inmates. The number of inmates continued to grow. It became evident that additional farmland was needed to keep the inmates profitably busy.
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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 county moved the Rock County Asylum and Poor Farm to 350 acres on highways 51 and 14 in 1894. Back then, able residents worked the land that provided their food. The Poor Farm and Asylum continued to be managed with the inmates doing the bulk of the work. Very little was publicly said regarding the management of the Poor Farm and County Asylum by 1911. The facility was known as the County Farm, Poor House, Insane Asylum and County Hospital. Over the next 50 years, long-term care consisted of food, clothing, lodging and social supervision but did not include treatment by professional staff. “Deviants” of the community, were confined to the county farm. These included epileptics, unwed mothers, drug abusers, and prostitutes.
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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 1925 The Alpha Building opened as the “Women’s Residence”. Women living in the Alpha building worked in the kitchen and the laundry. Then in 1939 The Beta Building opened as the “Men’s Residence”. Men living in the Beta Building worked in the laundry and on the farm. The original asylum building was demolished sometime in the 1960s.  [[Rock County Insane Asylum|Click here for more...]]
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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.
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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...