June 1, 2011

• Pennhurst State School and Hospital, originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution

  
  Pennhurst State School and Hospital, originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic is positioned on the border between Chester County and Montgomery County in Pennsylvania. Pennhurst was an institution for the mentally and physically disabled individuals of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
  

  In 1903, the Pennsylvania Legislature authorized the creation of the Eastern State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic and a commission was organized to take into consideration the number and status of the feeble-minded and epileptic persons in the state and determine a placement for construction to care for these residents.

  
  This commission discovered 1,146 feeble-minded persons in insane hospitals and 2,627 in almshouses, county-care hospitals, reformatories, and prisons and were in immediate need of specialized institutional care.

  The legislation stated that the buildings would be in two groups, one for the educational and industrial department, and one for the custodial or asylum department. The institution was required to accommodate no less than five hundred inmates or patients, with room for additions.

  

  The first group of buildings were completed in 1908, and  the original campus layout was finished by 1921. The dire need for an institution for the developmentally disabled at the time had overcrowded the institution from the start, and the mixing of epileptics of normal mental capacity worsened the situation. It was soon realized that the epileptic patients should be treated in elsewhere, but the admission rates kept well above the number of discharges.

  
  The patients at Pennhurst were mostly young and were often collectively called “children,” however the age of the residents ranged from infants to people over 70 years old. They were generally separated by their IQ level, which was categorized into three main groups: Morons (59-69), Imbeciles (20-49), and Idiots (below 20). These medical terms were antiquated before they became popular in common slang, and were replaced with the terms: Mild, Moderate, Severe, and Profound Mental Retardation. The lowest functioning patients were mostly bed-ridden in cribs, unable to move much or feed themselves.

  
  The amount of care needed for the patients here to attempt any kind of rehabilitation was quite a formidable task. Daily physical tasks such as changing diapers, showers, and assistance with walking were needed, as well as educational programs – the overcrowded atmosphere and lack of trained staff made both types of activities take a back seat. As with most mental and developmental institutions run by the states in the U.S., the role of the hospital shifted quickly from treatment as a goal to custodial care. Low wages, long hours, and the overcrowded workplace kept many skilled doctors and nurses from applying for jobs, creating an even more difficult situation. In 1946, there were only seven physicians serving over 2,000 patients at Pennhurst with no room for the 1,000 still on the waiting list for admission; the patient census peaked at 3,500 in 1955. Therapeutic facilities were constructed, but sat disused due to lack of trained staff. The funding problem also put a stranglehold on the maintenance of the buildings, and the daily budget for each patient sunk so low that some basic needs could not be met.

  

  The class-action case against Pennhurst State School was ruled by U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Broderick in 1977, where the institution was found guilty of violating patient’s constitutional rights. Pennhurst State School was forced to close by 1987 following several allegations of abuse, beginning a deinstitutionalization process that would last several years. Its 460 patients were discharged or transferred to other facilities; Pennhurst was responsible for discussing treatment plans with each patient’s family to decide what would be the best for the patient.

  Halderman v. Pennhurst State School and Hospital

  The allegations of abuse led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States called, Halderman v. Pennhurst State School & Hospital, 446 F.Supp. 1295 (E.D. Pa., 1977), which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of Pennhurst, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, violating the fourteenth amendment, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments, as well as the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Retardation Act of 1966 (MH/MR)

  “Equal rights, that went out the window if you were in an institution. They didn’t care, to them, if it was fair or wrong. They figured they had a right to do whatever they wanted to you.” – Gerald Wheaton

  • 6:11 pm
  • 3 Comments