Word: openings
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...long, as Maxwell Jones puts it, we worked on the unconscious belief that 'the role of the patient is to be sick.' If he senses that we expect him to be suicidal, or try to get away, or to be violent, he will oblige us. The open door is a symbol of our new-found belief that we expect patients to get better. It is only a symbol and not a panacea. It must be used in combination with every other form of treatment we know...
...Freedom. "There is a spectrum in 'freedom' and 'open' doors-they are not absolutes," says Dr. Hunt. "Doors are open, and some patients can come and go freely, but some are so disturbed that an attendant will ask them to wait for a little talk. The important thing is that they are asked to stay in, not physically restrained. Patients on shock treatment are asked to stay in on treatment days, for their own safety. They understand. In all, 80%-or more than 4,000 patients-have full freedom of the grounds, unsupervised, some part...
...striking feature at St. Lawrence, which is now 100% open, and in varying degrees at all New York's other state hospitals (average: 66% open), is the transformation of the wards. Gone are the dreary wooden benches, where patients dressed in Mother Hubbards (when they were not undressing themselves) sat listless, sometimes in their own excrement. Instead there is modern, comfortable furniture. Windows, no longer barred, have gay curtains or draperies with drawstrings. Instead of glaring ceiling lights, there are bridge and table lamps. Glass vases hold cut flowers. Plant stands are loaded with potted violets. Glass tumblers...
Near to the Norms. Across the U.S., almost a dozen states are experimenting with open doors, from those unlocked only an hour or two a day to those flung wide throughout the daylight hours. In the early '50s, Pennsylvania rejuvenated its Embreeville State Hospital near Philadelphia, opened its doors in mid-1956. Says Dr. Eleanor R. Wright: "We've had fewer escapes than when the doors were locked. It may not be the best system for every hospital, but it works...
Locked Out. Private hospitals are generally even more reluctant than the states to unlock doors, for fear of damaging incidents and lawsuits. Yet in San Francisco, at the opposite extreme in size from the giant state hospitals, a tiny (14-bed) unit at Stanford Hospital* applies the open-door system with outstanding success. "When we speak of patients as being 'locked up," says the psychiatrist in charge, Dr. Anthony J. Errichetti Jr., "what we really mean is 'locked out'-we are using lock and key to exclude them from society. When we used to put a patient...