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

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|Title= Milwaukee County Asylum
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|Title= Callan Park Hospital for the Insane
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|Body= Milwaukee's first mental hospital, known as the Milwaukee County Asylum for the Chronic Insane, opened in 1880 on the County Grounds in Wauwatosa. The state reimbursed the county $1.50 a week for every patient in its care. At the peak of institutionalization in the 1940s and '50s, Milwaukee County housed some 6,000 people with mental illness in several locations. Accommodations were anything but lavish, usually two to a room, sleeping on cots and sharing a sink. There was no psychiatry or meaningful therapy, said Bill Baker, who worked there as an internist. People were basically drugged and warehoused.
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|Body= The Colonial Government bought the whole 104.5 acres as a site for a new lunatic asylum to be designed according to the enlightened views of the American Dr Thomas Kirkbride. Colonial Architect James Barnett worked in collaboration with Inspector of the Insane Dr Frederick Norton Manning to produce a group of some twenty neo-classical buildings, completed in 1885 and subsequently named the Kirkbride Block, offering progressive patient care.
  
There were three wards at what we then called the Milwaukee County Infirmary when I, B. Hanson, worked in the Activity Department in the late 1970's; two wards for men and one for women. There were 60 residents to a ward. Their beds were about 4 feet apart, with a nightstand for personal effects.
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The asylum was the 'institutional linchpin' of moral therapy and the appropriate design of the building was crucial to the success of the therapy. [18] Pleasant surroundings and well designed, comfortable, small-scale buildings were imperative. These aims were embodied in a pavilion-type layout, where small buildings had all-weather connections and the spaces in between were landscaped as courtyards for outdoor activities. Manning chose Chartham Down because it was a pavilion-type layout in which separate ward blocks enclosed airing courts. Ultimately, the combination of Manning's understanding of moral therapy, Barnet's architecture, and the outstanding site at Callan Park, produced a design of a higher standard than Chartham.
  
The activities department was run by OT professionals. There were dexterity and mental projects provided to the residents, as well as field trips, walks outside, arts and crafts and basic education for them to keep busy. Teams of all the staff involved, from doctors to the janitor, met monthly to discuss each resident's situation in order to be aware of medical, social or behavioral issues. I remember a discussion with the doctors regarding too much anti-psychotic meds for a resident--I felt his tongue lolling might embarrass him on a bowling excursion in public. The meds were adjusted.  [[Milwaukee County Asylum|Click here for more...]]
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Together they designed five male and five female wards, to accommodate approximately 600 patients. The wards were symmetrically arranged about the main cross axis on which the official buildings were planned. Eight of the lofty, airy wards, had large airing courts – some with a view to the Blue Mountains. The other two had high retaining walls caused by the slope of the land. A remarkable continuous covered veranda linked the buildings. [[Callan Park Hospital for the Insane|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 05:03, 23 February 2020

Featured Article Of The Week

Callan Park Hospital for the Insane


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The Colonial Government bought the whole 104.5 acres as a site for a new lunatic asylum to be designed according to the enlightened views of the American Dr Thomas Kirkbride. Colonial Architect James Barnett worked in collaboration with Inspector of the Insane Dr Frederick Norton Manning to produce a group of some twenty neo-classical buildings, completed in 1885 and subsequently named the Kirkbride Block, offering progressive patient care.

The asylum was the 'institutional linchpin' of moral therapy and the appropriate design of the building was crucial to the success of the therapy. [18] Pleasant surroundings and well designed, comfortable, small-scale buildings were imperative. These aims were embodied in a pavilion-type layout, where small buildings had all-weather connections and the spaces in between were landscaped as courtyards for outdoor activities. Manning chose Chartham Down because it was a pavilion-type layout in which separate ward blocks enclosed airing courts. Ultimately, the combination of Manning's understanding of moral therapy, Barnet's architecture, and the outstanding site at Callan Park, produced a design of a higher standard than Chartham.

Together they designed five male and five female wards, to accommodate approximately 600 patients. The wards were symmetrically arranged about the main cross axis on which the official buildings were planned. Eight of the lofty, airy wards, had large airing courts – some with a view to the Blue Mountains. The other two had high retaining walls caused by the slope of the land. A remarkable continuous covered veranda linked the buildings. Click here for more...