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

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|Title= Gowanda State Hospital
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|Title= Fairfield State Hospital
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|Body= Gowanda State Hospital was built by the architectural firm of Esenwein and Johnson who had an architectural practice in Buffalo, New York. The firm was administered by August Carl Esenwein (1856 – 1926) and James Addison Johnson (1865 –1939). They were the architects for Gowanda State Hospital from 1896 to 1912. Gowanda Osteopathic Hospital opened its first building in 1896 upon the 500 acre tract removed from the Taylor Farm by the state of New York. Taylor had previously bequested this acreage to his many nieces and nephews.
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|Body= Fairfield State Hospital, the third public mental institution to be established in Connecticut, had a stormy history from its inception. Members of the community actively resisted its location in the vicinity of Newtown and, for more than a decade, their attitudes had a negative Impact on its development. Dr. Leak, its first superintendent, although on the staff of Connecticut State Hospital for more than fifteen years and its superintendent for more than ten years, did not apply the knowledge gained through these personal experiences. Apparently neither he nor the Board of Trustees of Fairfield State Hospital recognized the importance of capitalizing on the developments that had taken place since the turn of the century at Connecticut State Hospital and Norwich State Hospital. From the beginning the Board expressed the attitude that this state facility for the men- tally ill would surpass its predecessors in the care and cure of those unfortunate People whose minds have become deranged with strange fancies and who have lost control over their thoughts and emotions.
  
Gowanda State Homeopathic Hospital West Group was described in the 1930s as having 1,254 beds, having treated 1,429 patients that year by 6 house staff, with the result of a history of 4.1% deaths. There are also 10 homeopathic physicians working as consultants from the western New York area. Patients were treated under strict Homeopathic auspices. The medical complex consisted of two-story wings projecting from the main building, two three-story pavilion style buildings, two pavilions for patients with tuberculosis (TB), power house, laundry, kitchen, main dining room building, and smaller dining rooms in several buildings, farm, workshops, nurses home, store room, amusement hall/auditorium, main staff house, and superintendent’s resident -- all built prior to 1946.
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This attitude contributed to the lack of communication between Fairfield State Hospital and the two other hospitals and perpetuated its isolation for more than twenty years. The associated drive for autonomy was reflected in the overt resistance to being integrated into the Department of Mental Health. This opposition was expressed by both the Board and the Superintendent during the fifties and sixties. Consequently advanced psychiatric concepts, practices and principles in nursing advocated by the Chief, Nursing Services were not accepted and implemented as readily in Fairfield Hills Hospital as in its sister hospitals.
  
GSH also had a Hospital Nursing School, which trained employees for the facility. A graduate program was held every year on the hospital grounds in September. It included an overture, processional, invocation, solo by a singer, address, presentation of new nurses, the administration of the Nurses’ oath, and a benediction in the program. Nurse uniforms were the traditional nurses’ white cap and a seersucker dress with a white apron. The average class was coed. Many of the orderlies at GSH were Seneca Indians who lived on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation property that abutted the state hospital property. The hospital maintained an archery range, a three-hole full sized golf course, a pond stocked with fish, and a recreational center with movies shown in two showings on Saturdays. [[Gowanda State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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Although the hospital was opened in the early thirties to relieve the overcrowding of both Connecticut State and Norwich State Hospitals, this objective was not achieved until the advent of the Unit System. Before 1964 the three State Hospitals were overcrowded and filled beyond their authorized capacities. With the implementation of the Unit System at Connecticut Valley and Norwich Hospitals in the mid sixties their respective patient populations were significantly decreased. [[Fairfield State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 03:38, 26 March 2012

Featured Article Of The Week

Fairfield State Hospital


Ctpc011.jpg

Fairfield State Hospital, the third public mental institution to be established in Connecticut, had a stormy history from its inception. Members of the community actively resisted its location in the vicinity of Newtown and, for more than a decade, their attitudes had a negative Impact on its development. Dr. Leak, its first superintendent, although on the staff of Connecticut State Hospital for more than fifteen years and its superintendent for more than ten years, did not apply the knowledge gained through these personal experiences. Apparently neither he nor the Board of Trustees of Fairfield State Hospital recognized the importance of capitalizing on the developments that had taken place since the turn of the century at Connecticut State Hospital and Norwich State Hospital. From the beginning the Board expressed the attitude that this state facility for the men- tally ill would surpass its predecessors in the care and cure of those unfortunate People whose minds have become deranged with strange fancies and who have lost control over their thoughts and emotions.

This attitude contributed to the lack of communication between Fairfield State Hospital and the two other hospitals and perpetuated its isolation for more than twenty years. The associated drive for autonomy was reflected in the overt resistance to being integrated into the Department of Mental Health. This opposition was expressed by both the Board and the Superintendent during the fifties and sixties. Consequently advanced psychiatric concepts, practices and principles in nursing advocated by the Chief, Nursing Services were not accepted and implemented as readily in Fairfield Hills Hospital as in its sister hospitals.

Although the hospital was opened in the early thirties to relieve the overcrowding of both Connecticut State and Norwich State Hospitals, this objective was not achieved until the advent of the Unit System. Before 1964 the three State Hospitals were overcrowded and filled beyond their authorized capacities. With the implementation of the Unit System at Connecticut Valley and Norwich Hospitals in the mid sixties their respective patient populations were significantly decreased. Click here for more...