Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Philadelphia State Mental Hospital at Byberry by Michelle Chasse
The Byberry Mental Hospital was opened in 1907 in Northeast Philadelphia and The facility included over fifty buildings with peak patient population was over 7,000 in 1960. The hospital was one of the biggest institutions in Philadelphia. The original intent of the facility was as a small work farm and turned into something to relieve overcrowding at surrounding mental asylums in Philadelphia known as a custodial institute. The theory of the founding physician Benjamin Rush was to give patients proper treatment, and keep them away from normal people.
The patients at Byberry were often sent from closing hospitals and were a range from homeless, poor, and criminally insane. The patient experience at Byberry was appalling, and only escalated the longer the facility was open. Being a custodial institute this hospital got onslaught of patients that made it harder and harder for the facility to remain humane in it’s treatment. While patient numbers rose there was 14 on-staff physicians, 90 nurses and one attendant for every 300- 400 patients. Many patients lost their lives at this facility due to their illnesses and neglect, but before the state takeover in 1938 there were almost no records taken of patients and the numbers of the deceased are not known.
In 1938 the hospital was taken over by the State to help the institution concur internal problems, but the hospital remained involved in many abuses towards patients. A Life magazine reporter Albert Maisel focused on the lack of proper staffing at Byberry in an article he released to the world, but because of the increased need of places to put mentally ill people the hospital continued on. Unfortunately even as the times changed and the era of deinstitutionalization was in full swing Byberry continued to commit in humane acts and was well known for it. In 1989 the hospital was shut down after the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appointed a task force subsequently called the Blue Ribbon Committee finally looked into the years of abuse at the hospital.
For more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_State_Hospital_at_Byberry
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/byberry-philadelphia-state-hospital/
http://www.philadelphiastatehospital.com/
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Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like in this "hospital" as well as many others, that overcrowding and inappropriate numbers of staff to patient contributed greatly to the neglect and deaths of so many patients. You detailed the purpose of this particular one's purpose was to relieve overcrowding from other institutions; yet this place was worse with 7000 around 1960. You also point out its goal was to give patients proper treatment and keep them away from normal people. Like so many of the blogs we have posted, proper treatment was not accomplished and the actual outcome was significant mental and physical abuse. It seems like none of the hospitals improved until they were decommissioned.
One of the prominent themes in the asylums/hospitals is the idea of separating people who were not viewed as fit somehow to be in society. It is interesting how many different areas or concerns of that time were included. Anything from mental illness to physical problems to socially unacceptable behavior to simply being considered a burden could result in placement at programs such as these.
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