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

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|Title= Harlem Valley State Hospital
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|Title= Thomas Story Kirkbride
|Image= Harlem.jpg
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|Body= One day after the incorporation of the Board of Managers, Harlem Valley State Hospital came into being. It opened on April 24th, 1924 "for the care and treatment of the insane" as part of an act to discontinue the farm and industrial prison at Wingdale. Buildings A, B and C had already been constructed at the State Road (Route 22) site and money was soon requested to buy adjoining farmland and buildings to build a root cellar, dairy barn, piggery and poultry house for 3000 chickens. With 24 patients admitted on August 11 from New York City and Long Island, the hospital was ready to become part of the history of Harlem Valley.
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|Body= In 1840 Kirkbride was asked to become superintendent of the newly established Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. He accepted for largely practical reasons, as his training and experience interning at Friends' Asylum and at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Hospital provided him with the necessary background for the position. As Superintendent he became one of the most prominent authorities on mental health care in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
  
Between 1925 and 1929, the certified capacity of the new hospital rose from 250 to 1294. During that time, the Board of Managers, which, in later years, became the Board of Visitors, approved changing the course of the State Route 22 so that it would skirt most of the grounds instead of running directly through. By 1928 Buildings F and H were competed and Kitchen G was readied. In addition, tennis courts were built, physical culture classes were started and a baseball team for employees was organized. Then, by 1929 new staff quarters were completed and a switchboard was installed that served for 60 years. In the fall of the year, the School of Nursing, constructed in 1926, opened on September 23 with 14 enrolled.
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In 1844, Kirkbride helped to found AMSAII, serving as secretary, then later as president from 1862 to 1870. Kirkbride pioneered what would be known as the Kirkbride Plan, to improve medical care for the insane, as a standardization for buildings that housed the patients.
  
By 1934 the hospital was considered complete except for the Assembly Hall, which was dedicated by New York State Governor Alfred E. Smith three years later in 1937. The Wingdale campus evolved into a town within itself with a farm, laundry, bakery, refrigeration plants and storerooms. The new baseball field and grandstand with a grassy expanse beyond added to the planned village look. Also in 1934 child guidance clinics were opened in Mt. Kisco and Mt. Vernon. Clinic increased in number until World War II, when they were discontinued due to staffing problems and travel restrictions. [[Harlem Valley State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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Kirkbride's influential work, On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane with Some Remarks on Insanity and Its Treatment, was published in 1854, and again in 1880. Kirkbride had been influenced by the Quaker-founded York Retreat in England whose leader, Samuel Tuke, had published an account entitled, Practical Hints on the Construction and Economy of Pauper Lunatic Asylums (York, England, 1815). The Tuke family had instituted in their hospital a "moral treatment" approach to care for patients, which centered upon humane and kindly behavior. The Superintendents’ Association made efforts to institute this approach in their hospitals.
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Kirkbride's ideas brought about mixed feelings in both patients and peers. Some in the medical community saw his theories and ideas as stubbornly clinging to ideals that hindered medical progress, while others supported his ideas, and saw them change the treatment philosophy for the mentally insane.[[Thomas Story Kirkbride|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 04:18, 9 July 2012

Featured Article Of The Week

Thomas Story Kirkbride


Thomas Story Kirkbride.jpg

In 1840 Kirkbride was asked to become superintendent of the newly established Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. He accepted for largely practical reasons, as his training and experience interning at Friends' Asylum and at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Hospital provided him with the necessary background for the position. As Superintendent he became one of the most prominent authorities on mental health care in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

In 1844, Kirkbride helped to found AMSAII, serving as secretary, then later as president from 1862 to 1870. Kirkbride pioneered what would be known as the Kirkbride Plan, to improve medical care for the insane, as a standardization for buildings that housed the patients.

Kirkbride's influential work, On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane with Some Remarks on Insanity and Its Treatment, was published in 1854, and again in 1880. Kirkbride had been influenced by the Quaker-founded York Retreat in England whose leader, Samuel Tuke, had published an account entitled, Practical Hints on the Construction and Economy of Pauper Lunatic Asylums (York, England, 1815). The Tuke family had instituted in their hospital a "moral treatment" approach to care for patients, which centered upon humane and kindly behavior. The Superintendents’ Association made efforts to institute this approach in their hospitals.

Kirkbride's ideas brought about mixed feelings in both patients and peers. Some in the medical community saw his theories and ideas as stubbornly clinging to ideals that hindered medical progress, while others supported his ideas, and saw them change the treatment philosophy for the mentally insane.Click here for more...