Today we went out to Mayview one of the Pennsylvania 'State Hospitals' aka mental hospital. Our visit out there has by far been one of the most depressing things I've seen in my life. Acres of disused buildings that have been left to all down made me think of all the thousands of people who had 'treatment' there. They're closing the hospital and are down to one wing for the 30 or so people who have yet to move out but those 30 people are in such an awful state. They call out for medication (making it obvious who's on meds and when) lunch was like a cattle call. All day they're locked out of their bedrooms left to only be in the social room and one day room off that. It was freezing cold with the old leaky windows barely keeping the bitter wind out. Everyone sat around in a medicated daze with their coats around them to beat the chill. In many cases we couldn't tell the staff from the patients.
I wish we could take them all to our facility. The reality is we're only saving two from another institution similar to this one.
Random: The history channel is talking about cannibalism. The bottom corner has their little logo as well as 'happy holidays'. My mind immediately went to a cannibalistic Christmas dinner. Yes, I'm a freak.
1 comment:
That is really sad. You just have to be happy that you can help at all.
Also--random, we both wrote about cannibals the same week. We're strange.
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