More memories of a nurse who worked at Danvers State Asylum during the golden age……..

If a patient had no family and was admitted to Danvers in the 1940s and 1950s, he or she was almost always used like a guinea pig for various treatments.  The doctors would evaluate the patient’s behavior after treatment to see if there was any effect.  This was a common practice for the majority of mental institutions during the golden age.  There just was not a whole lot known about mental illness.  They honestly thought they were helping the patients and the human race as a whole. 

The shock treatments were especially frightening to the patients as well as to the nurses who had to drag them to the sessions and then hold them down.  Sometimes it took as many as six nurses to hold one patient down for a shock treatment.  The patient would shake violently.  Tongue depressors were placed in their mouth to keep them from biting off their tongue.  Patients would break bones from their wild thrashing during the shock treatment.   At the time, it was a treatment to hopefully change the brain pattern and used mostly on depressed patients.

Control through medication became available in the late 1950s and became a regular part of care in the 1960s.  Pentathol and Thorazine were used often.  Thorazine was used to sedate patients to lessen their knowledge of going through traumas.  Pentathol was used to get patients to talk.  The doctors conscientiously recorded all patient reactions to medications. 

Before they used tranquilizers, patients were locked in rooms for control of behavior.  This treatment would often make them even more disturbed and frenzied.  The corridors were filled with echoes of their screams of fear and frustration while locked in isolation.  This horrifying aspect of patient care was slowly phased out as more drugs were discovered and made available to mental health facilities. 

New drugs were tried out on patients, usually without their knowledge, and never with anyone’s consent.  They were not required to get patient consent.  There were no agencies in place such as patient’s rights as they are today.  The guiding principle for mental health professionals during these years was to do the best they could with whatever was available.

Male and female patients were kept strictly apart.  Women were not allowed to talk to men, and men were not allowed to talk to women.  However, these rules were not always followed; sometimes a guy patient would say to a girl patient, “I’ll give you a cigarette.  Want to give me something?”  The girl would say, “All right, you want a feel or something?”  When she would stop, he would give her a cigarette.  When staff saw these small transgressions, they usually just let them slide, knowing there was no way they could stop people from interacting and knowing that living at Danvers was punishment enough.  However, they did try to keep them apart as best as they could.

A staff member always had to walk the patients through the underground tunnels to go to the cafeteria.  There were bars dividing the men and women.  Th

Girls who were pregnant or became pregnant would be sent to Worchester State Hospital.  Worchester had the facilities to handle pregnancies.  Several weeks after the patient gave birth, she was sent back to Danvers, but without the baby.  The baby would be put up for adoption.  Authorities did not assume mothers might eventually be released and would want their babies.  Years later, however, this policy changed and mothers were allowed to choose.  The child was raised through the state until the mother’s release.  The baby was a ward of the state until it was decided that the mother was ready to care for herself and her child.  This sometimes took many years.

The writer of Danvers State Memoirs of a Nurse in the Asylum recalled one young girl who gave birth in her hospital bed.  No one knew she was pregnant.  Evidence of the birth was smeared on her bedcover and dressing gown.  She was in a rocking chair rocking what nurses thought was a doll, until they looked closer and discovered it was a real baby.  Even though it was felt she really loved her child, the baby was taken from her because they felt she was incapable of caring for it.

Once a week, patients were brought down for a shower.  Two staff members would put on bathing suits and bring the patients down.  As soon as one was washed down, the staff member washing would say, “Next.”  On the other side there would be staff members ready to cut their fingernails and toenails, brush their hair and give them clean clothes (whatever they had for clothes).  If a patient was too sickly to be brought down to the showers, they were given sponge baths in their rooms.  Staff’s main concern was taking care of the patients as best as they could.  They always worried about operating expenses.  Danvers employees never knew what the state’s budget would look like and how much money they would receive.  It was never enough.  They had to diligently use all supplies and save where they could.

As the years passed on, things slowly began to change.  Danvers began to employ professionals in psychology and psychiatry that would review cases, however, the shortage of nurses and other staff members never changed.  They always needed more help and more money.

Some of their patients were really good and some were just more stable.  The nursing staff learned if they treated these types of patients kindly, they would help them with necessities.  The patients would do just about anything for a cigarette, a cup of coffee, a piece of candy.  Little things meant a lot to them.  The nursing staff would take in cigarettes and candy and the patients would show their gratitude by helping them with daily chores.  Though it was a difficult time for them all, somehow they managed to keep everything running.

Continued in Part 7

Source:  Danvers State Memoirs of a Nurse in the Asylum by Angelina Szot and Barbara Stilwell

Written by:  Connie Limon.  For more information about the history of, visiting and living in Massachusetts visit:  http://smalldogs2.com/VisitingMassachusetts  To submit articles and find a variety of FREE reprint articles visit http://www.camelotarticles.com

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