The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1943-05-28

fortunates, that particular farm clos
to Warm Springs would undoubtedl
have been chosen as the place sought
1t is nothing more than an alkal
flat, with nothing to commend it il
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 ant
have never been put to any use. The
water level is so high where the
buildings stand that easements are
almost out of the question. Where
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 3 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 &C.
cupational therapy-the 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
Warm Springs representa- correct
notion largely-is that of a place to
herd together a lot of poor nuts, lock
them up, and leave them.
Such is not the ideal an humane,
enlightened people should hold re-
Sdi ulnS lntfl nOSDildl III INC iiDhAoA-
ly afflicted. Rather, it should be
thought of as a place where comfort
is afforded, where surroundings are
conducive to a 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-
ual, and where the best medical and
psychiatric service is available to all.
Until the people of Montana come to
think of their hospital in this light,
until they get hold of the idea of
making their institution a place for
the tender treatment and care of men,
tai 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
been forgotten = cast off, forgotten,
and denied 1T is Warm Springs.
Warm Springs patients living these
days on SO cents a neal How can
a broken mind regain its health and
equilibrium unless the body is well
nourished? Miracles are being |
wrought now in the kitchen with the |
money this state niggardly allots, that |
is true. Nevertheless, an attendant |
whose word can be relied upon, who |
looks after a ward of men at certain |
hours, whose job it is, among other
things, to battle them, makes the con-
sidered statement that these men |
have pods, not stomachs, after months
of near starvation.
Food, good housing, care. These
are the things needed to restore sick
people to normal health. The hous-
ing problem will have to wait, of
till materials are available
again. But the care of patients can
not wait. And the proper care of this
class of patients requires skillful, we'll
trained workers. A startling situa
ion exists at Warm Springs, in the
TACT that for the nearly two thousand
patients there are only two doctors,
besides the superintendent. Two
thousand mentally sick patients! The
standard set by the American PSYCHE
ltric Association for hospitals of the
Kind is one doctor to one hundred
fifty patients. Warm Springs would
iced eight or ten trained psychiatrists
o come anywhere near that standard;
loctors who would be employed to di-
ect and supervise the treatment of
hese patients. Under such a set-up,
more careful examinations could be I
,iven to determine the treatment
laded for each nafianf and his re-