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 DownsideuP
  
Location: Tampa Bay
Gender: Male
"?" -Me
 |  | The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
< on 8/1/2006 9:06 PM >
|  | | | Author's note :This may belong in "other". Mods, please move it if necessary, but it does relate to asylums in the Northeast and I'd like as many people to see it as possible.
The State of Mental Health
Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states in this country, where gay marriage is touted, where near socialist public programs are rampant, where the government supposedly cares and looks after it’s people is the scene of one of this country’s darkest human rights blunder followed by the most flagrant destruction of historical places since the Penn Station debacle of the 1960s .
The state spent over one hundred years abusing mental patients in it’s “state of the art” asylums” starting in the mid 1800’s and continued unabated until the 1980’s and beyond. Mental patients, some of who were not mentally handicapped at all, but were simply confused, depressed, and alcoholic or were simply not wanted by spouses and parents were warehoused in the enormous Gothic institutions that dotted the state. Along with the stockpiling these unfortunates came other horrors such as insulin shock, hydro bathing, electroshock, lobotomies and drug-induced coma. All considered “therapies” and all as horrific as they sound.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Massachusetts decided that it could no longer tax the population into oblivion and the resultant financial hemorrhage led to the “deinstitutionalization” of mental facilities. The simple definition was that the state was no longer able, or willing, to support the massive mental institutions. The ironic thing is that most state hospitals were self-supportive to a point in that they grew and processed their own food and patients made products that were sold for a profit. Sometime in the late 1960’s, a lawsuit was brought forth condemning the practice of using mental patients as “slave labor” to support the hospitals. It was decreed that the patients must be paid a fair wage for their labor. This, obviously, was not economically feasible. These activities ceased and the patients lost not only an important source of revenue for the hospitals but the only therapy that really had a lasting impact on their lives. Their useful purpose was stripped and they were medicated back into submission and uselessness.
The epic turn of the century asylums were slowly emptied, with the patients released into smaller, private facilities, halfway houses and into the general population where some became part of the much politicized homeless “problem”. The buildings themselves, some of which were listed on the National Historic Register, were left to rot, filled with usable equipment, supplies and thousands of supposedly confidential patient records. Over the years, the criminal neglect of these once, if not beautiful then certainly historic buildings, led to their almost irreversible decay.
These facilities comprised thousands of acres of land and millions of square feet of buildings. All of which, without exception, were perfectly serviceable when closed. The state simply refused to spend any money to supply the necessary maintenance to keep them serviceable. When it was learned that vandals, thrill seekers and ghost hunters were entering the buildings, the state invested in boards for windows and doors and later full time, on site twenty-four hour security. All of which failed miserably in keeping the curious out. The state refused to spend a dime to repair roofing or plumbing, which led to catastrophic water intrusion and weather damage.
When concerned citizens appealed to the state to preserve any of these sites, they were rewarded with a deaf ear, a blind eye and blatant corruption. A referendum proposing that $620,000 be spent to structurally stabilize the Northampton State Hospital, half of which was private funds, it was voted down. This was due to an aggressive marketing campaign by the state that misled the public into believing that millions of tax dollars would be spent on the project. It simply wasn’t true. The fact was, the state, after neglecting these properties for years realized they could finally cash in on them and in the process, bury an inconvenient truth with bland, expensive condominiums all the while lining tax coffers to perpetuate more socialist programs. Incidentally, the state spent much more than $620,000 on "security" from 1993 to 2006 when Northampton was finally unceremoniously demolished.
The sites were actually offered to moviemakers as sets for free for a time. Ostensibly to draw attention to them to them, making them easier to market to developers. They were then listed for sale at practically give away prices to developers that were willing to line the municipal coffers with tax revenue and civil additions such as new access roads and interstate ramps. Projects that sought to preserve the buildings in any way were rejected by the state, even in cases were the offer was higher, because the state may have been required to finally exhibit financial responsibility by supplying a modicum of assistance in the form of tax considerations, partially matching funds or some other minimal funding.
The State of Massachusetts continued to shamelessly abuse it’s mental patients by allowing developers to buy these asylums right off the Historic Register, including the cemeteries that contained the final resting place of these unfortunates. The State offered no financial support in restoring, mapping or even recognizing these sites. In fact, it was up to private individuals to accomplish the preservation of asylum cemeteries at several locations, while at others, such as Metropolitan State Hospital, developers actually desecrated graves by trampling them with construction equipment.
The developers, required by federal law, to preserve a certain percentage of these historic structures lobbied, sued and petitioned to whittle the percentage down to a ridiculous amount. At Danvers State Hospital, 3 walls were saved of a one million-plus square foot building erected in 1874. Alternately called “the scariest building on earth” and “America’s only Gothic Castle”, Danvers was virtually obliterated due to an endless parade of “experts” hired by the developers to parrot that fact that the building was beyond repair and thus “not salvageable.” A structure that sat solid and serviceable for 132 years was rendered, in these expert’s opinions, beyond repair in a mere 21 years.
The developers were also required to safely abate these buildings of lead paint, asbestos, radiological waste and host of other contaminants. In some documented instances, workers were observed disposing of hazardous waste in common containers meant for non hazardous materials, burying hazardous waste within the rubble of the demolished building and not practicing safe handling of waste, putting themselves and the general population at risk. These offenses were duly noted, penalties were incurred and paid for by the developer and the business of destroying history was permitted to continue virtually unpunished.
The developers, in collusion with the state, with their flagrant disregard for the will of the people, completely rendered the National Historic Register impotent. In doing so they robbed generations to come of some of this countries important historical buildings, negated over one hundred years of the suffering of mental patients and proved once and for all that the most liberal of politicians only serve their own financial best interest.
The State of Massachusetts failed miserably in caring for and preserving the privacy of the mentally ill, they failed in protecting their remains from desecration, they failed in their environmental responsibilities and they failed in their stewardship of historic building that belonged to all of us.
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bradeno
Location: Harlem, CT
Gender: Male
No war but the Social war.
| |  | Re: The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
<Reply # 1 on 8/1/2006 9:26 PM >
| | | | That was pretty rad.
-BradenO
www.myspace.com/treesisdyin |
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Turd Furgusen
 
Location: Charleston, WV
Gender: Male
I think marijuana is just nature's way of saying high!
| | |  | Re: The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
<Reply # 2 on 8/1/2006 9:58 PM >
| | | | NICE!!!
Finally, I see someone else comparing Danvers to Penn Station! I wonder what asylum will be our "Grand Central Station" and who our "Jackie O" will be?
Are you the author?
Everyone has a dark side, mines just a little more illuminated. |
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DownsideuP
Location: Tampa Bay
Gender: Male
"?" -Me
| | Re: The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
<Reply # 3 on 8/1/2006 10:05 PM >
| | | | Posted by Turd Furgusen
NICE!!!
Finally, I see someone else comparing Danvers to Penn Station! I wonder what asylum will be our "Grand Central Station" and who our "Jackie O" will be?
Are you the author?
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Yes, I'm the author.
I'm afraid the hour has grown too late for another Jackie O. But if not, then maybe I'm her. I would target Wo*****er, Gr*****ne, M*******wn, Bu***lo....any other suggestions?
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NINE
 
Gender: Male
| | Re: The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
<Reply # 4 on 8/2/2006 2:45 AM >
| | | | Although certainly factual at points, from my research your conclusions about mental health, the mental health industry, and the political games surrounding the asylums are vague at best, especially about Northampton. I think that generally speaking it is easy enough to blankly state that Massachusetts was particularly abusive because it has so many asylums compared to other states, but consider for a moment that during the 1850s, just before Northampton was chosen as the third site in 1855, 50% or more of jailed citizens were in due to their illness, or perceived illnesses. Northampton has had its issues, from overpopulation to jobs as political favors, etc. But I'm afraid it was most like other asylums in its late life. When Northampton was chosen it was part of a larger economic and educational plan for the valley. It had always been very liberal, very leftist. In the town of Florence, the suburb of Northampton was where Sojourner Truth called home for a number of years, and Frederick Douglas came to speak on occasion. The old Baptist Church downtown had always been an abolitionist institution, and significant parts of the Northampton economy were set up to spur the leftist agenda's: The Silk Mill in Florence, the Textile Mills in Easthampton, the Northampton Railroad, and in 1875 Smith College. Basically Northampton saw that in order to make things work they needed to have money. Northampton State Hospital was part of that plan originally. At ultimately it was Northampton that began the snowball effect that led to decentralization. NSH Super Intendant Pliny Earle for which the street bordering Memorial Complex is named was the first to profess that Kirkbride's statistics for cured patients were boastful. It was this honesty that truly began the end.
But as to cruelty and politics the State continued to cut Northampton's and other institution's funding throughout the years on a per patient basis, then blamed the institutions for not doing enough and ultimately cut them down. You may consider speaking to some former patients or their families about their mixed feelings. It is quite the paradox.
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old-fangled
 
Too pooped to pop.
| | | Re: The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
<Reply # 5 on 8/2/2006 6:48 AM >
| | | | I'm curious about the sources, which don't seem to be sited...do you have a list or a version of the article with the sources sited in it? Yeah, citing sources is annoying...but for an article like this I think most readers would like to see the sources before forming a solid opinion on the article's contents.
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DownsideuP
Location: Tampa Bay
Gender: Male
"?" -Me
| | Re: The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
<Reply # 6 on 8/3/2006 3:42 PM >
| | | | Sources as requested. I'm supplying excerpts and salient points. I'm not giving a handout of sites. Research them yourself if you want to know more.
Nine...I am interviewing former patients. I would very much like to locate more regarding a book I'm working on. If you know any who may be interested in speaking with me please PM me with contact information.
From Theo Emery, staff writer Hampshire Gazette
"in many cases there was no good reason for their confinement."
"thousands of patients filled the wards, grew old and, in some cases, died at the hospital simply because society was not able or willing to care for them in any other way."
"By the close of the 18th century, Northampton State Hospital - as it was renamed - had became a place not to cure, but to warehouse poor people who could not afford psychiatric care, as well as the senile, the elderly and others who, by today's medical standards, were not mentally ill at all."
"It had also become a nearly self-sufficient entity, boasting its own gardens, slaughter houses and canneries"
"But it also housed many people with temporary conditions, such as mothers with post-partum depression, and other who were simply old, unable to speak English, physically disabled, deaf, rebellious, or sexually promiscuous."
"It was in the early 1960s that "deinstitutionalization" efforts began in earnest."
"In other words, the hospital was not curing patients, but making their conditions worse, according to Fleischner."
"said Macauley. "Northampton State Hospital is an example of failed social policy"
Tom Riddel
In the middle part of the 20th century, a series of new treatments were utilized at Northampton State Hospital. By using these more agressive, modern treatments, Northampton hoped to improve its image as well as its patients. Hydrotherapy, pharmaceuticals, lobotomies, and electroconvulsive therapy were all used on various patients at the hospital.
Office Of Planning and Development: Village At Hospital Hill
"The Old Main complex of buildings at Northampton State hospital is in extremely poor condition."
"Years of neglect and abandonment to the elements have already collapsed floors in areas"
"The architectural significance of the buildings and the campus was recognized in 1996 when the site was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places."
"Tha Massachusetts Historical Commission, The City of Northampton, and The Division of Capital Planning and Operations entered into a Memorandum Agreement in 1995 to preserve the character of the site in future development."
"subtotal minus design contingency and escalation $726,000"
National Register of Historic Places
Owners of properties listed in the National Register may be eligible for a 20% investment tax credit for the certified rehabilitation of income-producing certified historic structures such as commercial, industrial, or rental residential buildings. Federal tax deductions are also available for charitable contributions for conservation purposes of partial interests in historically important land areas or structures.
J. Michael Moore and Stan Sherer, Historic Northampton
The patients contributed significantly to the functioning of the hospital and reduced the need for staff and also greatly reduced the financial burden of running the hospital thru the sale of produce from the large hospital farm.
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Agency History Record
1966: The Comprehensive Mental Health and Retardation Services Act. This legislation mandated programmatic movement toward deinstitutionalization and the development of community mental health centers. Emphasis was thus shifted away from the large state mental hospitals.
Galen Moore, Daily News
WALTHAM -- State workers have trampled a pauper’s graveyard next to two area state hospitals
Now some of those markers have been plowed under by heavy equipment.
"Apparently they just made part of the cemetery a road,"
The Committee for the NSH Ballot Question: Ballot Question #2, Tues Nov 4, 2003
Last year, the Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC) refused to mothball the building on the basis of a report they commissioned to prove that the building could never make back the money it cost to repair it. The report was flawed. The marketing study grossly underestimated the size of the building and the number of housing units that could fit into it. They even stated that the building was only three floors when a casual observer can see that it is four. The size of the building was estimated at 97,000 rather than the actual 148,000 net square feet, and this 50,000 square foot error translates into an 8.5 million-dollar underestimate of the building’s worth. The report "justifying" Old Main’s demise was clearly skewed in favor of demolition.
When confronted with this error by the only architect on the committee, another CAC member replied:
"Your numbers might be right," Jack Horner said to Tom Douglas. "... You need to accept that the committee isn’t going to do what you want it to." (September 2003, Daily Hampshire Gazette)
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Budgetary Direct Appropriations
MAINTENANCE AND SECURITY OF SURPLUS STATE PROPERTIES
1102-3206 For the costs associated with the maintenance and security of state surplus properties, so called, and for improvements to state-owned facilities to support the purposes of the fee-free state locations program, so called, as requested by the director of the Massachusetts film office
1,172,185
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old-fangled
Too pooped to pop.
| | | Re: The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
<Reply # 7 on 8/3/2006 4:15 PM >
| | | | Ummm...I'm not looking for a handout of sites...at least not for the reasons you seem to be implying. I asked for a professional citing of sources simply so that this arcticle...which seems to be aimed for professional publication...is readable as exactly that...professional. I think anyone else who works in publication, research, literature, etc would agree that it is hard to read a proposed article that has clearly been researched but the research isn't backed up by reputable sources. Actually, they wouldn't read it at all. I think NINE touched upon concept with his comment about the research being vague. I myself would love to read this upon completion...but until then I'm not going to scroll between the original post with no resources cited...and a later post with vague cited resources. I'm sure my opinion will get misinterpreted on this volatile board...I'm just saying if you want real opinions that are of professional substance...you have to supply your work in professional form.
I do think its great that you are writing this and hope you can find as many interviews as possible. Good luck.
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ryan
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: Providence RI
Gender: Male
F/gayz
| | | | Re: The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
<Reply # 8 on 8/3/2006 5:25 PM >
| | | | We need more posts like this, less stupid rants about who people hate and the reason they hate the people and the things they do.
I climb stuff!
Remember! Shop smart. Shop S-Mart \http://www.myspace.com/xitstheendx |
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DownsideuP
Location: Tampa Bay
Gender: Male
"?" -Me
| | Re: The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
<Reply # 9 on 8/3/2006 6:00 PM >
| | | | Posted by Entre_Nous
...I'm just saying if you want real opinions that are of professional substance...you have to supply your work in professional form.
I do think its great that you are writing this and hope you can find as many interviews as possible. Good luck.
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Well...I appreciate the criticism. Really. I don't recall asking for it, but that's ok. I'm not going to flame anyone for a well stated position. I'd like to point out that this was not necessarily written for a professional purpose. I wrote it as an editorial piece, because I feel strongly about the subject and to give those who are interested something to think about and research on thier own. It's opinion laced with facts. The facts are out there if anyone wants to dig.
I've never seen an opinion piece site sources, yet I just did, and they're criticized as vague??? I'm not sure how I could be much more specific than I was without supplying the actual texts, some of which are not on the internet at all, but in my possession.
Conversely, I think your criticism is vague. If you dispute what I've written then by all means back it up with your own facts and opinions, including sources.
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old-fangled
Too pooped to pop.
| | | Re: The State of Mental "Health" in Massachusetts
<Reply # 10 on 8/3/2006 6:36 PM >
| | | | No, you didn't ask for criticism...but you did post...and well that in itself is asking for a response...which includes critiques...especially on this site...so it seems. I thought an editorial fit under professional forms of writing? Clearly I'm confused as to the intent of this piece of writing. It being of opinion...that is clear. I guess I assumed that you wrote it for a place other than uer.ca...such as a newspaper or magazine. You clearly put effort and heart into writing it...so I assumed you meant it to go somewhere other than this website. I'm not debating or disputing your opinion or any other contents of the piece. I inquired about sources because, as you just said, its an opinion laced with facts. Facts need to be supported, hence me asking about sources. But this is getting reeeedonkulous...and I'm not here to contribute to the boards gone bad. so lets keep this one good.
I support both your opinion and your article...I was just interested in hearing where you got your facts so that I know that they are indeed facts. I think its a little absurd to post an article and say something is a fact...but then say go find the sources yourself.
Dude...I like what you wrote...I just wanted to hear more about it and how you got to where you got with the article.
Sorry for assuming it was for a setting other than uer.ca. I can only hope that the people on here who have real passion for mental health take it somewhere besides these boards.
Now, I'm going out to explore.
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