The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1943-03-12
Page Three

IL ourselves, But no one can ever fol
d get the mistake that was made /
W locating the Montana State Hospita
n on its present site, or of the purchas
8 of any such land for state institu
J. ton. The land itself remains Their,
t as constant mockery. Had a thor
o ough search beforehand been made
I from end to end of this great state
q for the express purpose of finding
the poorest piece of soil in the state
= on which to build an. institution
where we might dump our poor un
fortunates, that particular farm close
to Warm Springs would undoubtedly
: have been chosen as the place sought.
1t is nothing more than an alkali
flat, with nothing to commend it in
any way unless it be the spring which
bubbles up and forms great cone
shaped mound in the middle of the
farm whose waters are of no appar-
ent value for medicinal purposes and
have never been put to any use. The
water level is so high where the
buildings stand that easements are
|
there are easements, there is a con-
slant seepage of water so alkaline in
character that the cement soon goes
to pieces. OF the 1852 acres in the
farm project, only 20 to 80 acres are
at all tillable, and even with inten-
sive efforts in draining, fertilization,
and cultivation, hardly more than half
crop can be realized in a good sea-
son. Fully 500 of the farming must
be done at a distance of from to
Is miles from Warm Springs, and ex-
cept for the benefit that results to the
men from getting out and helping
with this farm work-a sort of oc-
cupational THERAPEUTIC products thus
obtained might better be purchased
outright or raised on some other state
farm and shipped to Warm Springs.
Given such a farm, such a soil on
which to build, such a tumble of ill
assorted structures to be termed an
institution, combine these with an at
titude of put them out of sight, keep
them out of mind cut appropriations
to the bone"-such an attitude as has
been displayed for years past by our
legislature and our people generally,
and you have what we call the Mon
tana State Hospital. The accepted
notion all through the state of what
Warm Springs represents-a correct
notion largely-is that of a place to
herd together lot of poor nuts, lock
them up, and leave them.
Such is not the ideal an humane,
enlightened people should hold re-
garding their hospital for the mental
ly afflicted. Rather, it should be
thought of as a place where comfort
is afforded, where surroundings are
to cheerful frame of mind,
where food is well selected and pre-
pared, where interests are provided
to capture the attention of those poor
befuddled minds, where personal care
and attention are given each individ-
lal, and where the best medical and
psychiatric service is available to ALL
Until the people of Montana come to
.hink of their hospital in this light,
until they get hold of the idea of
making their institution a place for
he tender treatment and care of men
al ills instead of a wretched prison,
Warm Springs will continue in bad
grace and repute, regardless of valiant
efforts of devoted workers there to
lift it out of that miserable hole.
If any institution in the state has
)een forgotten = cast off, forgotten,
md denied lit is Warm Springs.
Warm Springs patients living these
lays on 6.3 cents a NEAL How can
broken mind regain its health and
equilibrium unless the body is well
ourished? Miracles are being
wrought now in the kitchen with the
money this state niggardly allots, that
s true. Nevertheless, an attendant
those word can be relied upon, who
1oks after a ward of men at certain
ours, whose job it is, among other
Kings, to battle them, makes the con-
idered statement that these men
ave pods, not stomachs, after months
near starvation.
Food, good housing, care These
re the things needed to restore sick
eople to normal health The hous-
lg problem will have to wait, of
curse, till materials are available
gain. But the care of patients can
OF wait. And the proper care of this
lass of patients requires skillful, we'll
aimed workers. A startling situa-
on exists at Warm Springs, in the
lct that for the nearly two thousand
atients there are only two doctors,
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