About the asylum:
When entering this asylum I got to speak with the doctor that regulates most everything that happens within the building. He told me that there is certain therapies/tests that have been going on as a way to understand mental illness better and be able to treat these patient with the correct amount of care, medication, and most importantly the right kind of successful testing. Little did I know how truthfully bad these test were. I was given access to the files of these four patients to understand further what really happens to these people.
A few examples of treatment they use:
1.) Hydrotherapy. This is the therapy in which they submerge the patients in hot water, otherwise known as "steam cabinets". These are used to treat multiple diagnosis but most popular, especially in Northwest asylum as a way to overall calm their patients down.
2.) The utica crib. This is a treatment where a patient is put in a wooden box and held in there as a way to try and calm them down. Yet, this treatment usually does the complete opposite and many patients could not help but start to freak out and most died because they got so scared and went into shock.
3.) Insulin shock therapy. This treatment is used for mostly schizophrenia patients to put them in a coma and work on the unwilling patients.
4.) The tranquilizer chair. This was designed by Dr. Benjamin Rush, he believes that "madness" is an inflammation of the brain and could be cured if blood flow was stopped to the brain to "lessen the muscular action".
5.) This treatment is used to attempt to cure schizophrenia or epilepsy. It is called shock therapy or "electrocompulsive therapy". This has had a lot of failed attempts at the Northwest asylum.
A few examples of treatment they use:
1.) Hydrotherapy. This is the therapy in which they submerge the patients in hot water, otherwise known as "steam cabinets". These are used to treat multiple diagnosis but most popular, especially in Northwest asylum as a way to overall calm their patients down.
2.) The utica crib. This is a treatment where a patient is put in a wooden box and held in there as a way to try and calm them down. Yet, this treatment usually does the complete opposite and many patients could not help but start to freak out and most died because they got so scared and went into shock.
3.) Insulin shock therapy. This treatment is used for mostly schizophrenia patients to put them in a coma and work on the unwilling patients.
4.) The tranquilizer chair. This was designed by Dr. Benjamin Rush, he believes that "madness" is an inflammation of the brain and could be cured if blood flow was stopped to the brain to "lessen the muscular action".
5.) This treatment is used to attempt to cure schizophrenia or epilepsy. It is called shock therapy or "electrocompulsive therapy". This has had a lot of failed attempts at the Northwest asylum.
About the patients:
The four patients that I met with are, Lilly Heart (10), Matthew Richards (32), Kyle Birch (16), and Alyssa Burton (20).
To start, I collected biographies from every patient to give you a broad understanding of how this patient acts and feels day in and day out.
Lilly Heart:
Lilly is a young girl who was put into a mental hospital for having murderous tendencies toward her brother and animals on her farm. Her name is Lilly Heart. Her family was concerned and blamed multiple members of their family for being the one to hand down the diagnosis to their daughter. The parents (Tim and Alisa Heart) came in with a lot of concerns about her but, slowly stopped showing up around the 5 month mark. Her daughter seems to be calm and get along well with the other patients and has made so many strong improvements but her parents claim she is unfit and not ready to come out yet. She has been writing to her parents ever since she got in here attempting to say sorry and to please let her out.
Matthew Richards:
This is a middle aged man who was admitted at the age of 29, he was put in here for having black out rampages. His family seems not to pay mind to the fact he is very ill, they haven’t visited since the week after he was put into his room. When they did come, it was to arrange the room and pay some fees to the place he would reside. He has gotten more mentally unstable the more he’s been alone without family in the asylum but, still continues to do tendencies he is unaware of. He started off having one a day to having almost 5 rampages regularly every day. During an attempted interview he couldn’t complete it and started to throw things in my general direction. He was taken out by doctors and I was left in a state of intense fear. Yet, I sympathize with his struggles and lack of family support.
Kyle Birch:
Kyle is a teenage boy who started off with self harm and moved onto very intense bodily harm. He began to throw himself off high points and see where in his body he could hurt the most. Later on when he was admitted (about two months) he started to hit his head on the concrete walls of his room. When I first met Kyle he did not want to speak a word to me. He seemed very offended that I was in his space and asking him questions like “Where do you think you would be if you were never admitted” and continued to ask me “Who do you think you are?” Later that day he told the doctors to tell me that he was sorry but, just didn’t want to talk about things that make him start to harm himself. Soon that week we attempted another interview and it was mostly successful. As far as parental support, he doesn’t want to see them. He blames them for his state of mind and being stuck in the Northwest asylum. Unlike many patients within this asylum I believe he is perfectly capable of getting out of here a happy healthy person.
Alyssa Burton:
Alyssa is a 20 year old woman with the mentality of a 6 year old. She is stuck in the mindset where she was the happiest, where she was at peace. She bang this behavior after being here for a handful of months though, the reason she was put into an asylum is unknown. Alyssa has been through a life of trauma and abuse, physically, mentally, sexualy and emotionally. So, instead of coping with it she completely switched off her growing personality and went back to a time in her life (age 6) when there was no abuse of trauma, just happiness. Her family completely disowned her and declared that they wouldn’t want to see her or take care of her. She remains unphased by her family disowning her. When I met with her I could not complete the interview because I began to get emotional. She has very little intelligence of how she should act in social interactions in a social setting. Which means she mostly likely will never get a job or have a future to rely on. The doctors tell me that she will probably die here during a testing to attempt to "cure" her.
Bios: I chose bios because it gives you an overlook of each patient and where I was going with each character. I used inspiration from my own research I’ve done in the past and http://nutrias.org/inv/cityinsaneasylum51_145.htm.