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

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|Title= Elgin State Hospital
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|Title= Madison State Hospital
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|Body= The original name of the Elgin Mental Health Facility (its current name) was The Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane. The doors opened in 1872, however, construction of additional buildings continued until 1874. A rumor circulated for year, and still exists that the State of Illinois approached the City of Elgin with plans to construct a mental institution and a college and offered Elgin one or the other. As the rumor goes, Elgin took the mental institution, De Kalb took Northern Illinois University. As Elgin Historian and celebrated Elgin History author, Bill Briska points out the rumor, "...is totally false" He goes on to state that, "The state hospital was founded in 1869 and the college in 1892. (there are ) No connection between the events".
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|Body= On Feb. 21, 1905, the Indiana legislature passed a bill to construct a mental institution in southeastern Indiana. A commission named for the purpose chose Madison as the site of the institution. It was built mostly on land purchased from Henry and Ford Hitz at $100 per acre, atop the hills overlooking the Ohio River. The first patients were accepted at the new Southeastern Indiana Hospital for the Insane on Aug. 23, 1910. The approximately 600 patients were transported here from Central State Hospital in Indianapolis by train. Guards who stood watch over them carried shotguns loaded with rock salt.
  
The man-made lake was added in 1886. It was 400 by 500 feet in area and was designed to create a tranquil atmosphere for the patients and employees, as well as provide extra water for fire protection. In 1949, the census was 6, 025. In 1955, the average daily census was 7,644, its peak number of patients. Through the years, the hospital was often involved with notable research in medical and behavioral advances and served as a training ground for many physicians and other disciplines as mental health services were coming of age. In the early 1950's, with the advent of major pharmacological treatment alternatives, the move to deinstitutionalize mental health services began and, by 1965, the hospital’s average daily bid census dropped to 5, 103.  [[Elgin State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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There were 30 two-story buildings with 20 to 70 beds each to house the patients, with the buildings being placed in a symmetrical pattern with administration and service buildings in between. Men’s buildings were on one side of the grounds, women’s buildings on the other. Heretofore, mental patients had been “warehoused” in huge buildings. But the new, enlightened view of “moral treatment” current in the early 20th century was that disturbed minds could be restored to sanity in a beautiful, peaceful and accepting environment such as the new state hospital offered, with its breathtaking view of the Ohio River Valley. The breaking up of the patients’ housing into smaller buildings, known as the cottage plan, also was aimed at more humane treatment of the mentally ill and at trying to restore them to sanity.  [[Madison State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 04:48, 25 October 2020

Featured Article Of The Week

Madison State Hospital


Madison01.jpg

On Feb. 21, 1905, the Indiana legislature passed a bill to construct a mental institution in southeastern Indiana. A commission named for the purpose chose Madison as the site of the institution. It was built mostly on land purchased from Henry and Ford Hitz at $100 per acre, atop the hills overlooking the Ohio River. The first patients were accepted at the new Southeastern Indiana Hospital for the Insane on Aug. 23, 1910. The approximately 600 patients were transported here from Central State Hospital in Indianapolis by train. Guards who stood watch over them carried shotguns loaded with rock salt.

There were 30 two-story buildings with 20 to 70 beds each to house the patients, with the buildings being placed in a symmetrical pattern with administration and service buildings in between. Men’s buildings were on one side of the grounds, women’s buildings on the other. Heretofore, mental patients had been “warehoused” in huge buildings. But the new, enlightened view of “moral treatment” current in the early 20th century was that disturbed minds could be restored to sanity in a beautiful, peaceful and accepting environment such as the new state hospital offered, with its breathtaking view of the Ohio River Valley. The breaking up of the patients’ housing into smaller buildings, known as the cottage plan, also was aimed at more humane treatment of the mentally ill and at trying to restore them to sanity. Click here for more...