Colony Treatment of the Insane and Other DefectivesMurphy, P. L. (Patrick Livingston)
Science
Colony Treatment of the Insane and Other Defectives
Murphy, P. L. (Patrick Livingston)
Mentally ill -- Care -- North Carolina; Psychiatric hospital care -- North Carolina
The colony buildings, outhouses and surroundings at the Morganton
colony were made as near as possible like the farm houses in this
section of the State. This was done to give it a home-like appearance,
and the management has been such as to make each patient feel at home;
they are free to sit on the porches and the lawn in the summer, in
the sitting room before open fires in the winter. They smoke, have
games, read or do what pleases them during these hours of recreation.
They have their own garden, orchard, vineyard, berry patches, poultry,
pigs and cows, which they attend to. Every effort is to make each one
feel that these things are his own, he can gather berries, pull the
fruit when he wants it or as he pleases. Every one is expected to do
something if no more than pick up chips for the cook.
[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF COLONY]
EARLY EXPERIMENTS.
The first party of patients sent to the colony, about 15, were
quiet, industrious men who were expected to be the nucleus of the
organization. After these became accustomed to their new surroundings,
others who were quiet and who had some remnant of mind left, but who
did little or no work were tried. These readily dropped into the ways
of those who preceded them and who set the pace. Further experiment
was made by sending those who seemed incurably demented, incapable by
reason of their weakened minds of doing any kind of work. Most of the
last mentioned had been residents of the hospital for years and years
in whom the last vestige of hope for any improvement had long vanished.
Strange as it may seem to you, as it did to us, acquainted with these
men and their disease, they immediately went to work and are to-day
profitably employed. They have gained in health and self-confidence,
they are happier because they feel there is yet something in life for
them.
[Illustration: SNAP SHOT--COLONY PATIENTS CULTIVATING STRAWBERRIES]
It may occur to some to ask why these men had not been sent out to work
before and given an opportunity. It has been the invariable custom
since the hospital opened to try to induce every one to engage in some
kind of employment and it had been tried repeatedly with these very men
with complete failure. To conjecture why they were willing to work in
one place and not in another might be profitless, it is sufficient to
know it is true.
[Illustration: RESTING AFTER THE DAY'S WORK]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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