Psychiatric Hospitals

For the most part, psychiatric hospitals, institutions that house people for their lifetimes, are things of the past. In Oregon most hospitals are shutting down their inpatient wards. At OHSU we only have 10 inpatient beds for psychiatric patients. This in a hospital of 550+ beds.

One reason: they lose money. Another reason: there's no need for them. It's better for people to stay in the community, even the chronically mentally ill.

Across the country this is true; in upstate New York one mental institution was closed completely in 1995. When they went to clean out the building they found a stack of suitcases in the attic of the main building. These suitcases were the possessions of the inmates, brought with them when they checked into the hospital. A few curious people decided to sort through these things with great care and ended up writing a book about what they found. It is a bittersweet story. There's a display at the New York Public Library, chronicling the lives of some of the inmates. Many of them appear to be immigrants who had some horrible temporary circumstance in their lives, which led to incarceration. Over half of those committed to these institutions spent their entire lives there, and ultimately died there.

Oregon still has two state mental hospitals up and running. One is in Pendleton. The other in Salem. The hospital in Salem is in deplorable physical condition, and is being replaced by a new hospital. Where? Junction City. Stay tuned....I will know more about this when I start my job....