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

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|Title= Missouri State Sanatorium
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|Title= Kalamazoo State Hospital
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|Image= 10-18-2007-09a.jpg
 
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|Body= Missouri Rehabilitation Center was originally established as the Missouri State Sanatorium in 1907 to treat tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (TB), also known as the "White Plague," was a major health problem. A diagnosis of tuberculosis often meant impending death and the only known treatment for it was fresh air, sunshine, nutrition and bed rest. To keep the disease from spreading, patients were isolated from society. Thus the Missouri Legislature appropriated $50,000 to establish a sanatorium.
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|Body= The choice of Kalamazoo as the location for the Michigan Asylum at Kalamazoo was helped by the fact that the governor was Epaphroditus Ransom, who once resided in Kalamazoo. Although the asylum was originally planned for a site in what is now the Stuart neighborhood, it was decided that this location was too close to downtown. So planners instead chose to place the hospital far out in the country, where they would never be bothered by these people. That location was on what is now Oakland Drive, where the hospital is still located.
  
A board of five people was appointed to build a brick or stone facility, capable of future enlargement, at a site at least 1,000 feet above sea level. Chigger Hill in Mt. Vernon met all the requirements. The site had available water, an abundance of shade trees, and was adaptable to support agricultural and dairy needs. To secure its selection, the city offered the state approximately 60 acres of land, a cash donation of $3,000. The city agreed to furnish water, electricity and telephone service for the first five years. The first building, Gupton Villa, was erected at a cost of $20,000. The first patient was admitted Aug. 17, 1907.
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The asylum was on the cutting edge of many forms of treatment. Through its close proximity to a town, it was able to establish an innovative outpatient clinic in 1916 as well as a unique "family-care" program that placed patients in certified homes. The hospital also made use of colony farms, adjunct properties on which patients with milder illnesses — and those who today might be considered developmentally delayed — lived in familial farm settings. (One of these was near Kalamazoo's Asylum Lake.) They often raised livestock and produce for use at the hospital. The farms are examples of the limited treatment options for the mentally ill before the 1950s. He said that electroshock therapy, insulin-induced comas, and some barbiturate drugs resulted in little reversals in patients' thoughts and behavior.
  
The plan called for a total of 12 buildings to be grouped in the form of a Maltese cross, eight of the buildings were to house patients with the remaining ones to be used for administration and support services. Diagnosis of tuberculosis took six to eight weeks and because there were no medications to treat the disease, patients confined to the sanatorium spent months or years away from home. Reinfection was common and often necessitated a return to the hospital.  [[Missouri State Sanatorium|Click here for more...]]
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Narcoleptic or anti-psychotic drugs, such as Thorazine, would revolutionize psychiatric treatment and the role of psychiatric hospitals in society. Patients who had been in the hospital for decades were suddenly responsive, able to care for themselves, and moving back to live with their families. By 1987, the number of patients had dropped to 550. By 1959 the State Hospital had a patient load of 3,500 and 900 staff that included doctors, nurses, attendants, and service personnel. It became almost a city in its own right with a power plant, water system, bakery, laundry, library, canteen, garage, cannery, general kitchen, and greenhouse. For many years the hospital was one of the largest employers in Kalamazoo.  [[Kalamazoo State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 05:34, 6 November 2022

Featured Article Of The Week

Kalamazoo State Hospital


10-18-2007-09a.jpg

The choice of Kalamazoo as the location for the Michigan Asylum at Kalamazoo was helped by the fact that the governor was Epaphroditus Ransom, who once resided in Kalamazoo. Although the asylum was originally planned for a site in what is now the Stuart neighborhood, it was decided that this location was too close to downtown. So planners instead chose to place the hospital far out in the country, where they would never be bothered by these people. That location was on what is now Oakland Drive, where the hospital is still located.

The asylum was on the cutting edge of many forms of treatment. Through its close proximity to a town, it was able to establish an innovative outpatient clinic in 1916 as well as a unique "family-care" program that placed patients in certified homes. The hospital also made use of colony farms, adjunct properties on which patients with milder illnesses — and those who today might be considered developmentally delayed — lived in familial farm settings. (One of these was near Kalamazoo's Asylum Lake.) They often raised livestock and produce for use at the hospital. The farms are examples of the limited treatment options for the mentally ill before the 1950s. He said that electroshock therapy, insulin-induced comas, and some barbiturate drugs resulted in little reversals in patients' thoughts and behavior.

Narcoleptic or anti-psychotic drugs, such as Thorazine, would revolutionize psychiatric treatment and the role of psychiatric hospitals in society. Patients who had been in the hospital for decades were suddenly responsive, able to care for themselves, and moving back to live with their families. By 1987, the number of patients had dropped to 550. By 1959 the State Hospital had a patient load of 3,500 and 900 staff that included doctors, nurses, attendants, and service personnel. It became almost a city in its own right with a power plant, water system, bakery, laundry, library, canteen, garage, cannery, general kitchen, and greenhouse. For many years the hospital was one of the largest employers in Kalamazoo. Click here for more...