Portal:Featured Article Of The Week

From Asylum Projects
Revision as of 05:06, 10 November 2014 by M-Explorer (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

Featured Article Of The Week

Independence State Hospital


Independance.jpg

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.

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.”

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.”

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. Click here for more...