We can all learn a lesson from the Milledgeville tragedy.
If you have a mental health condition, you should be glad you did not live in Georgia from the 19th to the 20th centuries.
Why? The Milledgeville tragedy.
In 1837, lawmakers there approved a “Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum.” Then in 1842, the first patient named Tilman B. arrived. TIlman died from “maniacal exhaustion” in less than one year.
Although the first patient died quickly, many more patients arrived. This asylum grew into the largest insane asylum in the world. As a result, by 1937, two hundred buildings sprawled over 2,000 acres. These buildings housed 13,000 patients at a time in what Georgians called “Central State Hospital”.
Although its formal name was “Central State Hospital”, people throughout Georgia simply called it by the name of the nearest town, Milledgeville.
Parents routinely threatened misbehaving children with the threat of sending them to Milledgeville, a very powerful word. Milledgeville meant the city of the crazies, a place of fear and mystery, and a place for “funny” people.
Many of the people in Milledgeville had unspecified conditions or disabilities that did not warrant a mental illness classification. In addition, there the doctors used the tools of the times–lobotomies, insulin shock, and electroshock therapy, as well as other “less sophisticated” techniques.
Staff members confined children to small metal cages, forced adults to take steam baths and cold showers, confined patients in straitjackets, and treated patients with douches or “nauseants”.
The staff ratio was 1 to 100. Only 48 doctors served thousands of patients, and Central State Hospital hired many of these 48 doctors right off the mental wards.
The unfamiliarity with certain physical and mental health conditions resulted in thousands of innocent people dying slow, miserable deaths. And, after they died, staff members buried them in graves marked only with an iron stake engraved with a number.
Finally, in 1959, a reporter named Jack Nelson investigated Central State Hospital and reported it to be a snake pit. The facility continued to operate until 2010.
Why did this happen?
Driving through the Central State Prison grounds, it struck me that thousands of people lived and died in deplorable conditions because of lack of understanding of their condition.
What our society does not understand, it fears. And what it fears, it simply wants to lock away behind closed doors.
If we truly value human life, the Milledgeville tragedy will not be repeated.
Let the encouraging words in these bobbiejrae posts help you
soar like an eagle above life’s storms.
Keep our society safer!
Do you want to solve problems?
Celebrate this every day of your life…
Do you believe you can’t make the world a better place?