Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-09-25
CARE OF CHRONIC INSANE.
Success of the County System in
Wisconsin.

The Madison correspondent of The
Evening Wisconsin recently inter
yiewd Ii. III. Giles. the member of the
State Board of Charities and Reform
who looks after the chronic insane us
a specially. Mr.. Giles was found in
his Office earnestly engaged in examin-
ing formidable heap of manuscript
which he explained were monthly re-
ports from county asylums,
81 tell you," said Mr.. Giles. us he
leaned back in his chair, stroked his
long white beard, and smiled COM
placently, this county system of car
ing for the chronic insane, set in oper-
alton by our board, is the grandest
thing out, and all the experts are COM
ing to acknowledge 1t"
Then you think you've made a real
success of it?"
Success? Well. | should say SO!
It's grand. magnificent. In ever
county asylum that we have estab-
lished under the law, the inmates are
improving. At every visit | make
them the advance mentally and phys
ically, is very marked indeed. The
secret in nutshell is more occupa-
ton and less restraint than hereto
fore. We have asylums, now in Dane,
Columbia, Dodge, Jefferson, Brown,
She boygan, Rock, Grant, Green, Wal
worth and Manitowoc counties
eleven i'll all. In six of them, the
doors are not locked in the day time ut
all. The patients wander around us
best suit themselves, though of course
the attendants keep an eye on the. In
those asylums erected lately. 1--WE allow
no airing courts and pens. and we
expect to soon issue an order to abolish
all those now in existence. And it is
astonishing how well they work.
They enjoy manual labor, and the
great trouble we are now experiencing
is, 10 find work enough for them to do;
All of the superintendent are plead
IHS lOI Iilio IJllobthilL
labor, which they do 50 cheerfully and
even anxiously, coupled with the re-
moval of restraint, keeps them from
brooding over their decisions gives
them something rational to think
about, and wakes a set of faculties
that are not often aroused in the big
hospital and certainly not at all under
the county poor house system of solit
airy confinement with nothing to do.
The recoveries througout the state,
under the new system, now aver
age four per monthly recovery, of
course mean sufficient improvement
to enable the patient to care for him
self
as the system extending in the
state? Is it meeting with approval in
the counties where instituted = asked
the reporter.
why, yes; we expect to have the
aSylumS well scattered in few more
season. Now, their are Iowa, Fond
du Lac and La Crosse counties that are
getting ready to erect buildings; in
fact, Iowa has laid her foundation;
La Crosse is to put $4,000 into her
building. In Chippewa County where
| was the other day, they are talking
of putting in a building. One is sure
to be built next year, either in that or
EauClaire county. AS for the local
popularity, there is no mistake about
that now. In some of the counties
Rock. for instance,-where, after 4
hard struggle, but by bare majority
of the county board could be got to
appropriate money for the buildings,
they are to-day the most popular and
successful instructions iii the county.
Each one of those asylumS can take in
rs many patients from AeighboriCg
counties rs it can comfortably accom-
modate, the law giving our board the
right to transfer chronic patients from
one county to another ut will. So in
that way large asylum will do for
several counties; in the Dane county
Asylum for instance, there are ut
least halfa dozen counties represented.
\ county SEEDING its insane to another
county's asylum, pays 50 per head per
week for their care. The state aid,
direct to the county, is S1.50. Now in
the large state hospitals. the cost for
maintaining each patient averages
1919 per week. In the county asylums,
the cost runs from $3.50 to S2.l0, aver
aging Sl.7S."
allow do you account for this differ
ence in the cost of maintenance, Mr..
Giles?"
well one very important item in
keeping down the expense is the work
done by the patients. 1t really is con-
siderable Then, the county asylums
are not run on the high pressure plan
necessarily pursued at the state insti-
tuition. There is nc expensive medi-
cal staff. The patients are presumably
chronic, and work and unrestraint are
almost the only remedial agents. There
are fewer of them, they receive more
personal care, and the effect is really
wonderful. In short we have struck
the true system"