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

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{{FAformat
|Title= Medfield State Hospital
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|Title= Battle Mountain Sanitarium
|Image= Medfield01.png
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|Image= BATTLE_MOUNTAIN_SANITARIUM_South_Dakota_4.jpg
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= Medfield State Hospital was founded by an act of the State Legislature in 1892. The property consisted of several hundred acres and twenty two buildings. Over the years the buildings and land were increased until it reached its maximum size of some fifty eight buildings and nine hundred plus acres.
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|Body= Battle Mountain Sanitarium (now part of the Veterans Affairs Black Hills Health Care System) was part of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, which provided care for Union veterans after the Civil War. It was the first and only National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers built solely as a short-term sanitarium for veterans with lung or respiratory problems, not as a long-term home. Unlike the other National Home branches, veterans went to Battle Mountain Sanitarium for brief intensive treatment. Upon completion of their treatment, they were transferred to another National Home branch. Battle Mountain Sanitarium opened in 1907, offering veterans a complete array of services including plunge baths and an amusement hall. Located in the town of Hot Springs, South Dakota, the Sanitarium, made from local pink sandstone, rises above the town on a bluff to the northeast of the resort section of the town at an elevation of 3400 feet. A majority of the buildings predate 1930, and many of them are still used for their original purposes. The curving road system that winds through the facility is also original. The National Cemetery is located in the eastern section of the campus.
  
The Hospital has had as many as 2,200 patients on the property and a staff of in the range of 500-900 persons. It was in effect, a self contained community with a population at the time rivaling the size of the Town of Medfield. The facility supplied its own power, heat, water, sewage system, and raised its own livestock and produce. Medfield State Hospital claimed to be the first mental health hospital to be built on the “cottage plan” with individual buildings to allow for better light ventilation, easier classification, and to create a more homelike environment.
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Founded in the 1880s as a warm water mineral springs health resort, the town of Hot Springs became a popular destination for regional health seekers by 1900. Tourists enjoyed the benefits of the waters and the mountain scenery. The local effort to build a National Home branch began in the 1890s. The possibility became likely after an inspector for the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers inspected a State Soldier’s Home in the area and stated that he was impressed with the therapeutic qualities of the water. After this, 30 veterans from the Western Branch went to the State facility, and the treatments improved their health. In 1898, the Grand Army of the Republic formed a committee to convince Congress to locate a National Home branch in Hot Springs. In 1902, Congress passed legislation authorizing the new facility; the bill allocated $150,000 for the construction of buildings and $20,000 for equipment. Battle Mountain Sanitarium opened in 1907 for its first patient, Charles Wilbert, from the Marion Branch.  [[Battle Mountain Sanitarium|Click here for more...]]
 
 
During the Kennedy Administration, in the early 1960s, Congress passed a law requiring that all mental health patients in the United States be housed or hospitalized in the least restrictive environment possible. In the early seventies, as a result of this law, patients, guardians, and parents of patients filed a class action suit against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Department of Mental Health (DMH) to require the DMH to conform with the federal law. In 1974, a federal court consent decree was entered into by the DMH resulting in the relocation of most mental patients from isolated mental institutions to community based halfway houses and hospitals. A result of this decision has been to reduce the number of patients at Medfield to approximately 200. It has also set in motion DMH’s plan to eventually dispose all or part of the Medfield facility, along with seven other similar institutions across the State.  [[Medfield State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
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Revision as of 04:40, 6 March 2022

Featured Article Of The Week

Battle Mountain Sanitarium


BATTLE MOUNTAIN SANITARIUM South Dakota 4.jpg

Battle Mountain Sanitarium (now part of the Veterans Affairs Black Hills Health Care System) was part of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, which provided care for Union veterans after the Civil War. It was the first and only National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers built solely as a short-term sanitarium for veterans with lung or respiratory problems, not as a long-term home. Unlike the other National Home branches, veterans went to Battle Mountain Sanitarium for brief intensive treatment. Upon completion of their treatment, they were transferred to another National Home branch. Battle Mountain Sanitarium opened in 1907, offering veterans a complete array of services including plunge baths and an amusement hall. Located in the town of Hot Springs, South Dakota, the Sanitarium, made from local pink sandstone, rises above the town on a bluff to the northeast of the resort section of the town at an elevation of 3400 feet. A majority of the buildings predate 1930, and many of them are still used for their original purposes. The curving road system that winds through the facility is also original. The National Cemetery is located in the eastern section of the campus.

Founded in the 1880s as a warm water mineral springs health resort, the town of Hot Springs became a popular destination for regional health seekers by 1900. Tourists enjoyed the benefits of the waters and the mountain scenery. The local effort to build a National Home branch began in the 1890s. The possibility became likely after an inspector for the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers inspected a State Soldier’s Home in the area and stated that he was impressed with the therapeutic qualities of the water. After this, 30 veterans from the Western Branch went to the State facility, and the treatments improved their health. In 1898, the Grand Army of the Republic formed a committee to convince Congress to locate a National Home branch in Hot Springs. In 1902, Congress passed legislation authorizing the new facility; the bill allocated $150,000 for the construction of buildings and $20,000 for equipment. Battle Mountain Sanitarium opened in 1907 for its first patient, Charles Wilbert, from the Marion Branch. Click here for more...