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Originally Posted by pariah1107
Western State and it's reputation was cemented when Frances Farmer was committed in 1944. The Frances Farmer "Wing" of the hospital is a bizarre look at the history of mental health practices in Washington State in the early 1900's. Though the most infamous, besides Western State there was also Green River Hot Springs, Soap Lake, and Medical Lake as mental health facilities in Washington at the time. These are terribly sad stories. I had not heard of Victory Faust, and thank you for sharing. Recovery is a process, and very possible.
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I forgot about Frances Farmer - what a gut-wrenching movie.
I had heard the stories about the institutions, but it was really scary to hear patients at other facilities talking about their fear of being sent to Western State. Thinking about it more, I'm wondering if that fear wasn't fostered by the staff at the places where they were being treated. Where else would they get that impression?
For the most part, staff members were to be commended - a tough job, and they chose it - even the ones at Western State. There were two issues; however, that made it impossibly difficult for them: a lot of people with mental illnesses simply behave like angry, evil people and the staff have never seen these people when they were their normal selves, so they had no baseline. Also, it's tough even for family members who DO have the baseline, to put up with the abuse from their 'new' loved one. One thing I really wish could happen, would be for the staff members at these places to see people after they are back to normal - I think it would be eye-opening.
I know when laymen like us see mentally-ill people who have gotten treatment and are completely back to normal, most of us consider it an anomaly - a miracle of sorts - and it doesn't push us to take the necessary steps to help the others who haven't been 'cured'. I feel lucky to have spent a number of years living in Belltown, downtown Seattle, and gotten to meet a lot of very special people who are just like us, except they are probably more compassionate and generally more creative and intelligent. And they can take a punch better than most of us.