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

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|Title= Medfield State Hospital
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|Title= Norristown State Hospital
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|Image= Norristown_17.jpg
 
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|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= Norristown State Hospital, formally the 'State Lunatic Hospital at Norristown', is an active psychiatric hospital run by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and has been operational since its opening in the spring of 1880. At its height in the 1940s, it maintained a clinical population of about five thousand patients and was nationally renowned for its modern psychiatric practices. In more recent years, Norristown State's population has declined significantly to about 150 civilian beds. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania continues to maintain the site, but at a greatly reduced size and clinical capacity. It is currently the only remaining state psychiatric facility in southeastern Pennsylvania, following the closures of Philadelphia State Hospital in 1990, Haverford State Hospital in 1998, and Allentown State Hospital in 2010. It continues to serve the five surrounding Pennsylvania counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester.  [[Norristown State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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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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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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Latest revision as of 10:32, 4 January 2026

Featured Article Of The Week

Norristown State Hospital


Norristown 17.jpg

Norristown State Hospital, formally the 'State Lunatic Hospital at Norristown', is an active psychiatric hospital run by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and has been operational since its opening in the spring of 1880. At its height in the 1940s, it maintained a clinical population of about five thousand patients and was nationally renowned for its modern psychiatric practices. In more recent years, Norristown State's population has declined significantly to about 150 civilian beds. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania continues to maintain the site, but at a greatly reduced size and clinical capacity. It is currently the only remaining state psychiatric facility in southeastern Pennsylvania, following the closures of Philadelphia State Hospital in 1990, Haverford State Hospital in 1998, and Allentown State Hospital in 2010. It continues to serve the five surrounding Pennsylvania counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester. Click here for more...

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