Evening star., 1947-12-03
Plan 10 Shift
|Ga||inger Unit
|sSidetracked
Psychiotric Division
Improvement Costing
$3.50, 900 Explored

improvement Costing
$250,000 Explored
The District Commissioners and
officials of Gallinger and st. Eliza
beths Hospital have decided to forget
about Commissioner Guy Mason's
plan for lock, stock and barrel
transfer Of the Gallinger psychiatric
division to st. Elizabeths.
Instead, the city heads plan today
or tomorrow to ask Budget Officer
Walter L. Fowler how the Distric:
treasury would stand a proposed
program for $250,00 in badly needed
improvements at Gallinger to pro-
vide better care for mental patients.
This was announced following q
District Building conference yester-
day attended by the Commissioners.
Representative Miller, Republican,
OF Nebraska, chairman of the Dis.
trict Subcommittee on Health, Edu-
cation and Recreation; DR.. Winfred
S. Overholser, superintendent of st.
Elizabeths; DR.. George c. Ruhland,
District health officer, and DR.. A. r.
Sweeney, Gallinger superintendent.
Modify Mason Plan.
Meeting in an effort to solve the
problem of mental patients, some of
whom have been manacled to their
beds because of an acute personnel
shortage at Gallinger, the conferees
agreed tentatively to modify the
Mason plan.
The conferees emerged in complete
agreement on two main points:
First, that a new, $4,000, 900 psy-
chiatric building should be erected
at Gallinger, which might include
care of alcoholic patients.
Second, that mental patients at
Gallinger should be reclassified In
an exploratory move for possible
shifting of part of the load to st.
Elizabeths.
After the conference, which was
closed to reporters, Commissioner
Mason said Gallinger's repair bill
to improve conditions for mental
patients would be $250000. The
most pressing need, he declared, is
$50,000 for installation of elevators
in the Psychopathic Building, where
patients must be carried up and
down as many as four flights of
stairs for the calming baths in the
basement.
Condition Affects Personnel.
This condition contributes to the
difficulty in obtaining personnel to
man the building, Mr.. Mason said.
1t is the personnel shortage, in
turn, he said, which requires the
use of manacles to keep violent
patients in check.
DR.. Sweeney also asked the Com
missioners for a supplemental ap-
preparation of $4,000 in Gallinger's
l949 budget to revise the heating
system in the 20 rooms housing
disturbed patients in the Psyche
pathic Building.
DR.. Overholser said he told the
conferees only bona-fide psychotics
should be transferred to st. Eliza
beths, leaving the temporarily dis
turbed patients at Gallinger. Both
DR.. Overholser and Mr.. Mason agreed
the Mason plan should be modified
to leave drunks, persons suffering
postoperative shock and others suf-
fering temporary arrangement at
Gallinger
Action Awaits Report.
The conferees agreed also, that
definite action to correct the GAL
linger situation should await re-
ceipt of the report of DR.. Samuel
B. Wortis, chief of psychiatry at
New York's Bellevue Hospital, who
recently completed an investigation
of the Gallinger psychopathic divi-
sion. DR.. Wortis' report on the
shocking, conditions he found at
Gallinger is expected to be ready
in about a week.
Meanwhile, it was announced on
Capitol Hill that changes proposed
in the bill for. voluntary admis-
sion of mental patients to st. Eliza
beths will be considered soon, in
executive session, by the House La
Dor Subcommittee on Institutions.
headed by Representative Buck, Re-
publican, of New York.
The measure, introduced by Mr..
Buck for the Federal Security
Agency, was generally approved by
several witnesses at a subcommit-
tee hearing yesterday. The District
Commissioners, however, suggested
several changes, particularly on
financing the cost of patient care.
The Commissioners had opposed
similar bill in the Seventy ninth
Congress because of the added cost
to the city. The Buck bill. designed
to meet some of these objections,
already had provided that the Dis
trict government make agreements
with patients seeking voluntary ad-
mission to the institution, for pay
ment of their board, medical care
and treatment or for part payment.
The city also could take legal
action" to recover such costs from
a person.