The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-11-16
Accommodations Needed fol
About l,OOO More Patients.
CHANGE THE SYSTEM.
Superintendents Advise Abolish
ment of County Care.
May Charge Each County for
Patients Cared For.

If the recommendations of T. G.
Biddle and L. L. This. superfntendents
of the Topeka and Osawatomie state
hospitals for the insane are adopted by
the state board of control, it is likely
that the coming session of the legis-
lature will be asked to appropriate
sufficient money to build facilities for
taking care of probably 1 900 more in
sane patients than are at present ac-
comDlcdated at the Topeka and Osa-
watomie hospitals.
Such additional accommodations
would be provided either by the estab-
lishment of an entirely new hospital
for the insane. or by the erection of
buildings at The Topeka hospital
which will almost double the size of
that Institution.
The immense addition in facilities
Ior caring for the insane is due to the
urgent recommendations of both DR..
Biddle and DR.. Uhls that the state
abandon its present method of "cOun-
ty care for certain classes of insane.
The state hospitals are, under the
present law. not supposed to provide
accommodations for all insane, but
merely for the insane whose cases are
deemed to be curable. Whenever
county sends in an insane patient, un-
der the present arrangement, it is re-
qCired to take away some other pa
tieEt from the same county, as the
state hospitals are already full to the
But under the advice of Superin-
tendents Biddle and Uhls, this county
system should be entirely done away
with, and the state should arrange to
take care of all the insane. This means
that the state would have to provide
accomm odations for probably 1000
additional patients.
To do this would doubtless involve
thousand dollars. and if the legislature
decided to adopt the state plan of car
ing for all the insane, such an appro-
priation would have to be made.
If it is decided to increase the ac-
commodations OF the state hospitals, the
chances are that the board will decide
that the most economical plan will be
to build an additional building at the
Topeka asylum. The next legislature
Will CT necessity be required to build
new pumping station and an ice plant
for the Topeka hospital, and it will be
easy enough to make these large
enough to care for the needs of LOCO
additional inmates of the institution.
There is an abundant water supply
at the Topeka asylum, In the shape of
the Kansas river, and the advantages
of having the institution near a large
town are considerable.
Concerning the Importance of having
the state provide accommodations for
all insane patients, DR.. Uhls of Osawa-
tonne says:
The counties are not prepared to
give the best care to detectives. They
DO not nave SuIId D1y constructed Du1lO-
ings. They do not have trained physi-
clans in constant attendance: they do
not have trained nurses. The state
should make ample provision for car
ing for all its insane whose condition
has become such that they can not care
for themselves. They should be placed
in state institutions. Not even state
care and county custody is satisfac-
DR.. Biddle, of the Topeka asylum
says: THE experience of modern civil-
"a ation suggests that the counties re-
spOnsibility be enteirely eliminated. 1t
is practically impossible for the coun-
ties to provide the best care for this
unfortunate class of people. If attempt
ed it could not be done as we'll or as
cheaply as 1t can be accomplished by
the state. The system has no advan-
tages to recommend it, and there are
many convincing arguments against it.
The only objection to state care is that
it inclines the counties to impose upon
the state by sometimes transferring to
the state detectives who are dependent
upon the county for support and who
avoid this objection to state care it has
been suggested that the counties be
charged with a fixed sum for each pat
lent admitted from a given county and
county. 1t is believed that the plan
would have an inhibitory influence on
the counties converting the state in
sane hospitals into state aImshouses .
The state board of control is now hav-
ing prepared its recommendations to
the state auditor on the needs of the
state institutions for the coming two
years.
It will probably be up to the legisla-
ture to decide whether the state will
continue to follow the present method
of caring for the insane, or whether it
will appropriate enough money to pro-
vide accommodations in state hospitals
The plan of charging each county for
the patients from that county may be
adopted by the legislature, as suggest ted
vide for the maintenance of the institu-
tion without having the appropriation
made directly by the legislature
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