āFor their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitterā¦ā āDeuteronomy 32:32
At the age of sixteen I was committed to the Pontiac State Hospital in Pontiac, Michigan. It was the most traumatic experience of my life. I experienced horrific forced shock treatments in a freezing cold, ancient building that was falling apart around me. Itās no wonder the hospital eventually lost accreditation and had to closeāof course, that was decades after what they did to me there.
I have a lot more to say about my experiences at Pontiac. But you might wonder, āMore about Pontiac? Why? You were there over 60 years ago. Why not just forget about it?ā
It all goes back to when I first got out of the state hospital. I had terrifying thoughts and dreams, and I was trying to cope with them and my memory, learning, and speech and other problems by myself. I desperately wanted someone to help me and do something about Pontiac, but no one would even listen to what I had to say. It felt as if they were telling me I didnāt count. I was angry, very angry, and I never got over the hurt. Not a day of my life has gone by since without my thinking about Pontiac and the way I was treated. If nobody else was going to do anything about it, I was! Inspired by Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor who wrote about the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, I decided to write about Pontiac.
I sat on the idea for a long time before I tried to write anything. My first attempt didnāt turn out very well. A friend suggested the online UCLA writerās program. I began in 2007 and obtained my Certificate of Completion in 2010. Iād retired the year before, and now I had time to write about Pontiac. Several years on I attended a lecture at the local Hilton hotel given by Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America and founder of the website by the same name. I posted my first publication on my state hospital experiences there, Committed at 16: Memories of a State Hospital, in 2020.
Those responding to my article were very supportive, yet I didnāt know how many were willing to believe what I said without knowing more. I also wondered myself how much of what I remembered about Pontiac was true after so many years. As best I could, I tried to verify what I wrote by means of The Detroit Free Press archive and other reputable sources.
The Dangerous Conditions inside the Building
Pontiac was built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and many of its problems stemmed from its age and poor condition. It was first opened as the Eastern Michigan Asylum in 1878. The name was changed to the Pontiac State Hospital in 1911, and it became the Clinton Valley Center in 1973. At the time I was there in 1960, the original building was still being used and held around 3,000 patients.
This is how I described what it was like inside in my first article: āIt was January when I came in, and the bedrooms had little heat and smelled awfulā¦ Most of the day, I had to sit on a hard wooden chair [doing nothing] in a large room with maybe twenty or more others. The chairs were lined up beneath windows on three sides of the room. [There was] more heat than the bedrooms, but it was cold next to the windowsā¦ I had to have permission to use the bathroom, half [or more of] the toilets were clogged up, and the doors on the stalls were missing.ā
Sounds almost unbelievable, right? Conditions so brutal they were practically torture? I sometimes wondered if I was misremembering. Certainly, plenty of people didnāt believe how bad it was.
But now I have corroborating evidence. It truly was that bad. Maybe it was even worse.
Hereās how Boyce Rensberger described the conditions in The Detroit Free Press (āA Look Inside the Hospital: The Heart Rendering Things We Found,ā Feb. 2, 1969): āAt Pontiac State Hospital men, women, and children live in a 90-year-old building with no electric light in bedrooms. What little heat there is comes from hallways and floats near the ceiling of rooms that are taller than they are wideā¦ At Pontiac, the dingy walls have not been painted in yearsā¦ In many patient rooms, plaster is cracked and in severalā¦ whole square yards have crashed to the floor. Such deplorable conditions would be bad enough for healthy people but in a state institution these deplorable conditions are home and hospital to sick persons who already feel rejected by societyā¦ [I]f the state fire marshal was to enforce the lawā¦ [Pontiac would] need at least $20 million immediately for new construction.ā
Malnutrition
In 2020 I wrote, āThe food [at Pontiac] ranged from unappetizing to plain unhealthy. There was too much pulp in the orange juice for me, and a lot of times the fruit looked just plain rotten. For dinner they might have a fatty piece of meat in a gooey sauce. Maybe thereād be a part I could eat, but the rest had too much fat for me to chew. By the time I went home, Iād lost considerable weight and had big holes [i.e., recession] in my gums. My dentist told me it was due to vitamin C deficiency, and I would lose my teeth if it went on. I also was buying a lot of candy and ice cream [at the hospital] canteen with money my mother sent, which led to no end of cavities. A lot of times, it was eat that or go hungry.ā
My dentist told me I had scurvy, the only case heād ever seen in his years of practice. Itās best known as a disease of sailors centuries ago who went on lengthy voyages without access to fresh fruit. But after I started taking mega-doses of Vitamin C, my gums grew back. I also had to make weekly trips to the dentist to fill all the cavities I had.
Shock Treatments
I was at Pontiac for only a short time when they made me have shock treatments (AKA: electroconvulsive therapy, ECT, electroshock, or, simply, shock). The treatments always began with a heavy male nurse giving me a shot of scopolamine in the butt to prevent me choking on my saliva or vomiting during the procedure. Then, he had me put on a loose-fitting hospital gown, had me wait in an unheated bedroom (it was winter!) where others were waiting, and locked the door. I couldnāt help shaking from the cold and thinking about what horrible thing was going to happen next!
It wasnāt long before the door opened again, and the male nurse started calling us out into the hall, one-by-one.Ā Each time, I started to panic, thinking it would be me. Sometimes I heard loud screaming in the hall, and suddenly it would stop. I wondered just what was going on. Once or twice, somebody refused to go, and two big men came in and carried them out screaming. Finally, it was my turn, and I went out in the hallway. There was a stretcher with a white sheet and pillow, and people were standing around it.
As I described in 2020:
āI had to lie down on a stretcher, and then the doctor would wrap a tourniquet around my arm and have me make a fist. Then he injected me with something and released the tourniquet. In seconds, I couldnāt breathe. It was so terrifying and painful it goes beyond words to describe! ā¦ Later, I found out the doctor must have injected me with a muscle relaxant (e.g., succinylcholine chloride, known as Quelicin or Anectine) without putting me to sleep first. A muscle relaxant is used to paralyze muscles, including those that pump the lungs. Putting a strong electrical current through someoneās head causes a convulsion of the entire body, and without the muscle relaxant could break bones.ā
Nobody I talked to afterwards would believe somebody would do this to me! Years later, I came across it in Peter Breggin, M.D.ās book, Electroshock: Its Brain-Disabling Effects (1979, Pp. 167-8): āā¦A particularly terrifying ECT technique is the administration of modified ECT without prior sedation to render the patient unconscious. If the patient is not unconscious at the time of the injection of the neuromuscular blocking agent, he remains awake while unable to move a muscle or to breathe immediately before being knocked out by the electric currentā¦ I have come across two cases in which patientsā¦ were given ECT without first rendering them unconscious. One of my patients diedā¦ The other patientā¦vividly recalled a horrible sensation of suffocating or drowning just before losing consciousness during ECT.ā
Brain Damage
I complained about shock treatments and brain damage so much to my therapist, he sent away for my records from Pontiac to see what they said. They didnāt say anything about shock treatments being given to me in any unusual ways, but they did say I had between 20-30 bilateral ECTsāa high number of the most damaging kind!
Here is how I described what happened afterwards in my first article: ā[For a long time I] had to struggle to find the words to say simple things. What came out wasnāt always what I wanted, but something that rhymed or was similar in some way. Likewise, I had a hard time finding words when I was working on school papers, and a lot of trouble with spelling, punctuation, and grammarā¦ With some effort Iād been an āAā and āBā student at my high school before I was placed in the state hospital, but after I eventually returned I had to struggle to get āBāsā and āCās.ā A big chunk of my past learning was lost, and it was much harder to learn new things.ā
Many years later, I learned that there is a word for this: aphasia.
The Grip of Terror!
When I returned to my high school after being at Pontiac, I couldnāt stop the painful thoughts about Pontiac and shock treatments that kept coming into my head. I had trouble concentrating on what was going on in class and doing my homework. At times it was so intense Iād walk into a busy street without paying attention to what was going on. Sometimes people walking by saved me just in the nick of time, or else drivers stopped just before they hit me. I also had trouble going to sleep and terrifying dreams at night. Things were so bad for a time, I thought Iād end up committing suicide. Even nowāover sixty years onāI still have daily thoughts about Pontiac and nightmares about being lost and someone making me feel like dirt that remind me of how I felt back there.
Was this a new mental disorder or more of the same? When I was having so many terrifying thoughts and dreams, there wasnāt a specific psychiatric diagnosis for it. Ā Then, whatever problems I had the state hospital would say were āschizophrenia.ā Now, it probably would be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is defined in the DSM-5 as happening after āexposure to actual or threatened death.ā It is described as involving recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive recollections of the event ā¦ intrusive, vivid, sensory, and emotional components, that are distressingā¦ [and] distressing dreams that replay the event itself or that are representative or thematically related to the major threats involved in the traumatic event.ā
Pontiac Loses Accreditation; Forced to Close!
I thought there was so much wrong with Pontiac, it should be closed immediately. But at the time I was there that was like banging your head against the wall. Ā It wasnāt until 19 years later that it lost its accreditation and 18 years after that it finally closed. How did it survive so long and what brought it down?
According to Gerald H. Smith, D.P.A. (āThe Rise and Decline of Mental Health Hospitals in the State of Michigan,ā doctoral dissertation, Western Michigan University, 1992): āLimited financial resources, a defensive administrative approach to problem solving, accusations of insensitivity, and the like, have been major drawbacksā¦ [T]he mental health bureaucracy deserved much of the blame for problems.ā
Boyce Rensberger, writing for The Detroit Free Press (āPenny Pinching Hamper Mental Health Programs,ā Feb. 4, 1969), wrote that āfew citizens and legislators really care whether the mentally afflicted get decent care and treatment. Even fewer understand the nature of the problemā¦ [T]he popular conception of mental illness is still one of incurability. Legislators tend to reflect this attitude in their appropriations for the state hospitals.ā
So, what did a committee of state legislators find out when they suddenly showed up at Pontiac after so many years of their hands-off?
āA group of state legislators Friday made a surprise inspection of the large state mental hospital in Pontiac and found encrusted dirt in the wards, a lack of proper treatment programs, staff shortages, and what appeared to be excessive use of sedativesā¦Dr. Robert Braun, representing the hospital administration, did not dispute most of the legislatorās findings.ā (Kirk Cheyfitz, āLegislators Find Filth at Hospital,ā The Detroit Free Press, Feb. 7, 1976).
The legislators were followed a few years later by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH). āThe state-run Clinton Valley Center [Pontiac was renamed The Clinton Valley Center in 1973] has lost accreditationā¦ Clinton Valley director Anthony Drabki said the institution will not appeal the Commissionās Actions. [He] said the state legislature will have to provide money to make the extensive improvements called forā¦ The Commission found the center had too few pharmacists, trained nurses, and vocational rehabilitation programsā¦ Patients in wards found doing nothing or pacing the wardsā¦ In addition, the Commission found the center did not meet fire and electrical safety standards.ā (Staff Writers, āClinton Valley Adult Center Loses its Accreditation,ā The Detroit Free Press, Aug. 31, 1979).
ā[Michigan] Governor Milliken has recommended increasing next yearās mental health budget by $9 million to prevent the closing of the Clinton Valley Center and two other state care centers…[Patrick] Babcock [Director of the Department of Mental Health], said state hospitals and other care center are now operating āfar below acceptable care levelsā¦ā Babcock said he recommended closing theā¦facilities to prevent care levels from dropping even furtherā¦āĀ (Patricia Chargot and Martin F. Kohn, āAid Sought for Mental Care Centers,ā The Detroit Free Press, Aug. 18, 1982).
Clinton Valley never received the funding from the state it needed to upgrade its facility and programs to meet Joint Commission standards. In addition, it lost its eligibility for Medicaid, Medicare, federal grants, and private insurance when it lost its accreditation. After a protracted battle to stay open, it was forced to close in 1997 and was demolished in 2000.
Too Little Justice, Too Late
After seeing what The Detroit Free Press and the other sources had to say, I am encouraged that my recollections of Pontiac were substantially correct. Its loss of accreditation made clear that the care provided by Pontiac/Clinton Valley was substandard. I would certainly agree with this from my own experiences. The newspaper articles I quoted donāt confirm many of the details of my story, but I think they show that Pontiac was a place where these kinds of things could happen. There are those who would try to deny, minimize, or justify the unjustifiable, but I feel stronger in what I believe about Pontiac than ever.
The Detroit Free Press did an excellent job in bringing to light the conditions at Pontiac, its loss of accreditation, and closing. I thought it made a big mistake, though, by not investigating the violence at the hospital. Iām sure it was there! I experienced it myself, and I saw others being beaten and humiliated. (Detroitās other major newspaper, The Detroit News, didnāt have an online archive for the years I was interested in.)
As things now stand, it looks like so many got away with so much, and patients and families were left to cope on their own with the harm Pontiac did. Those working there clearly reneged on their professional responsibilities and ethical obligations. In cases involving assault on patients, they also broke the law.
Can Pontiac ever be held accountable? The statute of limitations for bringing criminal charges or a lawsuit to seek damages would have expired for many or most who were there. But it is still not too late to contact former patients and find out what they have to say about the hospital and the care they received. Iād also include anyone whoād been a patient at Michiganās other publicly funded mental hospitals.Ā Hopefully, it would help bring closure on the harm done to patients and their families, provide more information about the history of Michiganās publicly funded mental hospitals, and give warning to those seeking to solve todayās problems by the large-scale re-institutionalization of the mentally ill. Other states doubtlessly had similar problems in their public mental health system, and they would be interested as well.
Perhaps President John F. Kennedy said it best at the signing of the Community Mental Health Act in 1963: “I believe that the abandonment of the mentally ill and the mentally retarded to the grim mercy of custodial institutions too often inflicts on them and on their families a needless cruelty which this Nation should not endure.”
So important to save and report as they are thinking of reinstitionalizing people.
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I have witnessed two State Hospital betrayal here in Texas..
Richmond & Austin State Hospital,
also, Corpus Christi Texas
The fight club National News
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Thank you for sharing your story, Micheal.
And I agree, “Perhaps President John F. Kennedy said it best at the signing of the Community Mental Health Act in 1963: ‘I believe that the abandonment of the mentally ill and the mentally retarded to the grim mercy of custodial institutions too often inflicts on them and on their families a needless cruelty which this Nation should not endure.'”
Especially since JFK’s own family did this to women in their own family. Destroying the paternalistic “dirty little secret of the two original educated professions” is a difficult thing to do.
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Thank you for bravely sharing the deplorable conditions you experienced whilst institutionalized. I am so sorry you endured that.
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My mother was a patient at Pontiac Psychiatric hospital in the 1950’s . I was was two years old when she came home in 1959 She was in a terrible mental state. She suffered from severe mental amd physical abuse that she experienced while at Pontiac. She told of the electric shock treatments which were done on her many times over the course of the seven years she was a patient there. She also told of severe physical and mental abuse that she suffered at the hands of the the attendants and nurses. She went through hell during her time there.
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Hi Gary,
The last time my mother was in Pontiac State Hospital was from 1959 until her death in April 1960. I was born Dec 1958 and I have looked for answers for most of my life. I do have 2 letters my mom wrote within days of her death. She had epilepsy, that was the excuse I was given for her being there. She died from pneumonia. After reading Michael’s articles, I can imagine how it happened. I’m so glad your mom survived. I wish I could have known her. Chances are she had known my mother.
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Frances, I share your concerns about your mother’s death. I was there too during part of the time she was there. I had a volunteer position in the hospital section where they had the physically ill patients. I was supposed to help clean the floors and clean up after patients who lost control over their bowels and bladder. It was to help fill my time, and I was never paid for my work. Later, I understand the U.S. Supreme Court would label such “volunteer” work as “exploitation,” and required hospitals pay patients for their work. It was a grim place to be sure, not likely to inspire hope in anyone. Just the opposite. I’m not sure what kind of medical care the patients received there. For one thing, I don’t recall meeting any RN nurses at the time I worked in their hospital section. When Pontiac/Clinton Valley lost its accreditation in 1979, it was due in large part to their not having sufficient professional staff and treatment programs there. I wonder how your mother got pneumonia. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was due to the conditions there and their failure to control sources of contamination.
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My mother was 28 years old when she died. I was never offered any reason other than she had epilepsy. I’m almost positive she was there through much of her pregnancy with me. I was very sick as an infant. I have been diagnosed with multiple rare diseases and my left side is disproportionate to my right. I suffered from numerous neurological issues throughout my life, many taking years to diagnose and treat, though treatment was worse than the symptoms. I attempted to obtain my mother’s medical records from Pontiac but was unable without my father’s written consent. He was twenty years older than my mother and deceased. I even hired a lawyer to obtain her records, citing my need for medical history. This attempt failed.
Throughout my life it has been less about my battles and more about longing to know my mother. I was never able to fight for her. I didn’t know how awful that hospital was growing up. My father did not speak of it, of her. A hurt burned inside me I couldn’t shake. I felt it every day, especially at night when I silently cried and begged God to bring her back. I had never known her, couldn’t remember her, so maybe she wasn’t dead. Every aspect of my life has been affected. To this day I have 2 pictures of her in my bedroom, no others. At sixteen, I was given a letter she wrote a week before she died. It was to my older sisters, then 5 and 7. It was the most loving, perfect letter imaginable. That became my most cherished possession. We found 2 other letters when my father died. The first was begging him to let her come home, promising to be good, how she couldn’t stand it any longer. My father had insisted he had no control over her being there. I never questioned his statement then. After all, why would he? I did not keep that letter after reading it. I felt horrible she wanted out and there was nothing my father could do. I have now changed my thoughts on that entirely. The second I saved. It was the final letter my mother wrote, scribbled and barely legible. I can make out the words, she knew she was dying. I would like to send copies to you Michael. I would also like to say how terribly sorry I am for what you went through then and every day that has followed. I applaud you for your fight to survive, for turning the heartache into ways of helping others. And also apologize for those who fed their ego with flippant remarks, instead of seeing you as their brother or sister who needed comfort. I would have seen you, visited you, fought for you and loved you.
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(My reply to your comment of Aug. 28). Frances I’m sorry your mother’s treatment at Pontiac State Hospital has been so painful for you. The plight of family and friends of Pontiac patients is another aspect of the horror of this hospital which provided such poor care. I would wonder why your mother was being treated at Pontiac for pneumonia when she was already so sick. General Hospital are much better equipped to handle such cases. I don’t know why you were denied access to your mother’s medical records. I was able to obtain the records of my grandfather who was at the Ypsilanti State Hospital without difficulty. As laws can change, it may all depend on what year you applied. I checked the current Michigan law on-line, and it states that you would need permission of the executor of your mother’s estate to obtain her records yourself. If your mother had Medicaid or Medicare, you can request that the office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services investigate. Another problem is the poor oversight of Michigan State Hospitals at the time your mother was there. I was there myself at that time. Despite Pontiac’s many problems, it took nearly 30 years for the Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals to investigate and take away their accreditation. They lost funding from private insurance and any federal money after that. There were so many problems there, the state became more-and-more reluctant to fund them, and eventually they were forced to close because the state didn’t want to take responsibility for the harm caused to patients anymore. (This is according to The Detroit Free Press Archives).
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I served a thirty days to life sentence at Weston State Hospital in West Virginia. It was an excruciating time with absolutely nothing to do. It closed in the early 1990s. It was turned into a tourist attraction and given its original name The Trans Allegheny Lunitic Asylum.
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Michael,
Thank goodness you made it out of psychiatry’s hellhole alive.
Although most of psychiatry’s so-called “asylums” were emptied, its power to harm with impunity remains as it’s still a safe place for people to practice cruelty with impunity — malicious or not — it just adopted more socially acceptable methods and guises.
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The Citizens Research Council of Michigan (CRC), a nonpartisan citizenās watchdog agency, has the same grim picture of Pontiac on an article on their website as I do in my article and paint the same grim picture of public mental hospitals in the past in Michigan. According to Karly Abramson and Meredith Eis, āWhile there were many good reasons to close-down the inhumane āinsane asylumsā of yesteryear, doing so without providing the necessary infrastructure and funding to build and maintain alternative, community-based sources of treatment has left Michigan with a broken system that too often fails those in need of help.ā Michigan Falls Short on Mental Health Services – Citizens Research Council of Michigan (crcmich.org)
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Mr. Sturman,
I have testimony I think you will be interested in. I’m retired, and don’t have internet. I was in there and have my testimony in writing. Can I send it to you by mail?
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Send it to:
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You can contact Karley Abramson at the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, 38777 Six Mile Road, Suite 208
Livonia, MI 48152-3974. Send her my article as well if you can.
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I was there in 1985. It must have gotten better by this time or I did not witness all there was to see. However thankfully I never had to go through the Electric treatments. I was in my own different type of world while staying there and it was a supernaturally strange time for me. Not to mention that my batteries were dead in my hearing aids which really kind of gave me problems with other patients as I couldn’t hear them. Had to fry my battery in a frying pan in art room downstairs where I found the escape door to the outside world. Not kidding either. During my first escape I went to Kmart and stole a battery. And not because of the battery but because I saw an officer in a car and told him I escaped he took me back. It was definitely a strange time in my life. I am very thankful you made it out of there alive but like You I think of my time there quite often and think I survived!
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āā¦you were there over 60 years ago. Why not just forget about it?ā
First of all, this was a powerful way to discuss the beginnings of your experiences. Unfortunately it is still the attitude of most people who do not want to wake up & smell the proverbial roses.
I appreciate that you shared your experiences. While itās possible to allow time to heal, thereās nothing forgettable about what you shared.
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Yes, you are so right.
Only the beginning of the experience, that sentenced people to a life walk, in hell.
The closest a person can ever come to healing …. is for the Truth to be recognized.
I believe the day will come. “This” is only a glimpse, that the day is surely coming, and the Truth can no longer be ignored.
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September 14, 2023
Karley Abramson, Citizens Research Council of Michigan [email protected]
Dear Ms. Abramson,
In researching my own story as a patient at the Pontiac State Hospital/Clinton Valley Center for āMad in America,ā (https://www.madinamerica.com/2023/06/state-hospital-memories-more-story/), I ran across the article you wrote, āMichigan Falls Short on Mental Health,ā for the Citizens Research Council, Aug.13 2020. (https://crcmich.org/michigan-falls-short-on-mental-health-services). You wrote in your article: āā¦ there were many good reasons to close-down the inhumane āinsane asylumsā of yesteryear.ā
Pontiac (renamed Clinton Valley Center in 1973) lost its accreditation in 1979. When the legislature failed to come up with the money needed to bring the hospital up to where it would meet standards for accreditation, it was finally forced closed in 1997. Because of its long list of problem, it left not only myself but countless other victims who suffered irreparable harm.
Just yesterday, Donna (no last name given) commented on my MIA article: āMr. Sturman,I have testimony I think you will be interested in. Iām retired, and donāt have internet. I was in there and have my testimony in writing. Can I send it to you?ā Lacking any way of doing anything with her evidence myself, I suggested she contact the Citizens Research Council, an independent research organization to bring about changes in governmental policy in Michigan.
Similar situations no doubt exist elsewhere in this country and abroad. Recently, a mental health consultant to the State of Victoria in Australia recommended that victims of abuse in public mental health hospitals there be given an apology and compensation for the damages they suffered. (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-13/mental-health-mistreatment-calls-for-redress-apology/102468454). The report also acknowledged the depth of pain experiences by patients and called for the establishment of a restorative justice process where those who suffered would be offered a public forum to present their grievances.
I was wondering if anyone has thought of something like this for former Michigan State Hospital patients? It is the height of injustice to let so many to get absolutely nothing from the Department of Mental Health! Could you help bring this about?
Michael E. Sturman, M.A.
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Mr. Sturman,
It has been 30 years, for me.
I was 37, with an 11 year career, in Ophthalmology and living a wonderful life.. I didn’t have any psychotic break,
and I was not on drugs. The truth is,
I was assaulted by my neighbor while
his wife watched. The following day, I was strapped down to a gurney and taken to Clinton Valley by way of, a malicious concoction of lies, written by the woman.
I still have the original court documents
that put me in there. There is not a person on this planet, that ever saw or knew me, as the woman depicted in the court documents. If I were truly the woman depicted, I would be doing the “thorazine shuffle”, with the “tardive dysconsia jerk”, suffering with dystonia, laying in the streets somewhere, in jail …. or most likely dead …. a way long time ago.
I, am the fortunate one …. my parents and my brother got me out of there, the very day that I was scheduled to be strapped down and injected with psychotic drugs. Just, in the nick of time.
It is the treatments and drugs, that have fogged the minds of patients and their testimonials. It is the treatments and drugs, that makes the world question and doubt.
I was not on drugs when I was taken there …. and they didn’t get the chance to inject me.
To know me, is to know a very modest
woman, who prides herself in cleanliness, and tastefully dressed, in fine clothing. Self conscious to the point, that I am satisfied by what I see in my mirror, before going out into public.
I was “paraded” around the dining room at mealtime, where though in separate wards, the men and women “dined” all together …. with blood soaked light grey yoga shorts, with blood gushing down my legs to my ankles and feet …
You are right, Mr. Sturman ….. we were not allowed to relieve ourselves or take care of our personal hygiene. My “doctor” told me, “I know, how about I take a bunch of toilet paper and stuff it up you?” Word verbatim.
Believe me, if there was even toilet paper to use, I’d have done it myself!
I’m not on drugs and my mind is very well intact. I remember it, as if it happened not yesterday, today …..
Mr. Sturman … I’ve been 30 years, on a journey that can only be described as “Hell and high waters” ….
30 years, of deaf ears ….
and I’m sure you understand, not knowing who, to trust.
To come across your testimonial,
Dear sir …. it is an honor, to know you
exist. From Clinton Valley, to Dr. of
Psychology? ….. a child of 16?
I don’t cry for me; I cry for you.
The deplorable conditions that you were in, with peeling paint and all, were the very same deplorable conditions I was in, 30 years later. Dare I say, if anything, they were worse?
Helpless people laying in urine and feces, incapable of bringing themselves up off the floor, to even ask to use the restroom …. so drugged, no one could even have any control of any bodily function, and even if you did …. and finally did get permission….even if you could stand …. by the time you were allowed, you had most likely been given no choice but, to wet yourself.
There was no toilet paper, there was no soap, there was nothing for me to clean myself up. My mother smuggled me tampons, because she believed me, when I was finally allowed my phone call ….
after she left, from my first visit ….
I was allowed to use the restroom, where I took off my shorts, rinsed them
in the water from the sink, using them as my washcloth, washing the blood off my body, and rinsing my blood stained shorts the best I could …. put them back on, and went quietly back in to the “dayroom”.
Eventually they dried …. but the stains clearly still there.
My mother …. my hero … didn’t waste a second, on getting my father and brother to do whatever it took, to get me out of there. I was in there from a Friday morning, to Monday.
Being strapped down on a gurney for
injections of psychotic drugs, and
treatments …. were scheduled;
Not, on weekends when visitors were visiting, in the pleasantly painted, whimsical, quiet, “sanctuary” with the humongous fishtank that the visitors visited their loved ones in …. unbeknownst to them …. the torture, the torment, the crimes against humanity ….
the humiliation, the HORROR …. of which they could not see, or hear …..just on the other side of the giant steel door, of the visiting room.
Besides, most doctors of any kind,
like to enjoy their weekends….
Pretty much all “treatments” are scheduled during the week ….. weekends are for emergencies. Just sayin’..
The “head” Dr. committed me on a Friday morning….. he scheduled me to be strapped down to a gurney and injected with psychotics, on Monday.
I don’t know how, my father and brother got me out of there ….. that’s practically impossible, once one has been committed ….. you’re looking at months of court proceedings…. and by then, who knows what shape, one’s mind could possibly be in?
The doctor laughed at me, when he told me what he was going to do to me.
I stayed my quiet self, I assure you,
I was strickened, in fear.
I don’t know, how my father and brother, got me out of there, but they got me out of there …. just in the nick ot time.
Dr. Sturman is it?
I would welcome, an evaluation from the highest respected Psychologists in this country…… as long as it isn’t, behind closed doors. I would welcome, a lie detector test …….. Whatever it takes …
I pray, you are the one I can trust ….
to open the door to giving my voice to the voiceless; because so far ….. no one seems to be listening.
If you are, the one for me trust,
You can call me ….
Eternally Grateful.
“This” is only, a summary, done by phone.
There is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity.
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Donna, I regret I have only my sympathy to give you! If things were working right, our testimony should go before the legislature and the courts, and we should receive an apology and compensation for our damages. And Pontiac/Clinton Valley should have been closed long before it was– if the state were acting in good conscience. The old 19th century building could never meet any kind of decent standards. But things are not working right. Not yet, anyways. I belong to http://ectjustice.com/, and am a friend of Deborah Schwartzkopff. She not too long ago won a settlement in a lawsuit against the manufacturer of ECT devices for failing to disclose the risk of their devices. She may have suggestions for you. You can contact her through the website. You could also write up your story for MIA. They are looking for personal account such as ours. Or you can contact, Felicia Brabec, Chairman of the Behavioral Health Committee at the Michigan Legislature. [email protected]. I am going to do so myself. I think we should have a chance to present our grievances to them as a means of moving forward, and not falling into the old mistakes of re-institutionalizing the mentally ill as some would have it.
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Kind sir,
The key word, is “yet”.
I cannot express, my pleasure to
to meet you.
I feel it, truly my honor.
I am, the Grandmother of 8,
4 of whom, are my Great,
with who knows how many more
yet to come, but GOD?
Along, with my own precious daughter,
they are, the reason, I still breathe.
I cannot imagine, what it has been
to be you for the past 60 years …. just
the “glimpse”, is too much for me ….
It weakens me ….. inside of me, I am
on my knees, weeping.
My laptop, will be back online by Wed;
corresponding this way, is rather
frustrating …… over 12 hours for
my reply to reach you, and the same.
for you to reach me?. ….. I don’t know
why, I’m finding it kind of funny!
My father, is 94 fragile years old …..
My siblings are arriving this evening,
from all over the country …
for a week long family reunion…
introducing him, to grandchildren
he will be meeting, for the very first time.
Children meeting “playmates” they
never knew, existed;
I can hear their laughter already.
I know, the burden you have carried,
I know, the frustration.
My 30 years cannot even come close
to the weight of yours.
This week is full to the brim, for me …
I must put my phone down, and get ready.
I will be back online,
able to correspond efficiently
with every lead you have given.
Michael, what is the prognosis of a
person, diagnosed as “schizoaffective
disorder bipolar” …. after 30 years,
without one pill or therapy?
Deemed nothing less, than a woman
frothing at the mouth, with some kind of
“rabid” brain
with the court documents to prove it.
I sit, a retired woman ….. having earned myself a large enough monthly
check, to meet all of my
. . immediate needs.
IMPOSSIBLE, unless of course, the court
documents are clearly lies.
How many schizoaffective people do
you know, are mostly happy, not sad?
Truly, I only thought, I was the
happiest woman, that I could ever be ….
before the lies were told about me.
I didn’t know what it was, to be angry …
Now, I am nothing less, than a human . volcano.
I’m a 5’2″ small framed woman,
I pass out at the sight of blood,
most people have always been
larger, than me.
Violence, petrifies me.
All that I have ever had, to defend
myself ….
throughout my entire life
has been nothing, but words.
I use my words; I use my intelligence
I use my experience, and I use my knowledge……
and when that doesn’t work,
I speak in anger.
Has this not been, to say the least …
A mental war?
You have been, in Father God’s HANDS
all along, Michael….. just as surely
as HE, has had me.
I won’t disappoint you, I promise.
Luke 12:2-5
“Whatever is covered up, will be uncovered, and every secret will be made known. So then, whatever you have said in the dark, will be heard in broad daylight,
and whatever you have whispered in private , in a closed room; will be shouted from the house tops. ”
GOD PROMISED ….
and I do too.
2 heads, are a whole lot stronger
than one.
I called it the “American Holocaust ”
umpteen years ago …..
that’s because it is.
I have grandchildren, I have great.
grandchildren;
It’s not about me, it’s about them.
Anybody behind the walls of that beast, could have been mine. My grandmother, my mother, my sister, my baby, my grandchildren, my father, my
brother, my son, my friend.
It’s not, about me …. it’s about saving,
the babies.
It is over my dead body, my babies
will ever be fed, to the beast. I look forward, to further correspondence.
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There must have been a “glitch” with my phone. My response went directly to you, this time. Cool.
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September 19, 2023
TO: BEHAVIORAL HEALTH COMMITTEE, MICHIGAN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Rep. Felicia Brabec, Chairman Behavioral Health Committee, Michigan House of Representatives (Felicia [email protected]), Rep. Noah Arbit, Majority Vice Chairman ([email protected]), Rep. Kathy Schmaltz, Minority Vice Chairman ([email protected]).
CC: Laurie Pohutsky, member ([email protected]), Carol Glanville ([email protected]), Kimberly Edwards, member ([email protected]), Sharon MacDonald ([email protected]), Carrie Reingans, member ([email protected]), Mike Hoadly, member) ([email protected]), Alicia St. Germaine, member ([email protected]), Jamie Thompson, member ([email protected]).
Dear Chairman Brabec and Committee Members:
In 1960 I was a patient at the Pontiac State Hospital (renamed the Clinton Valley Center in 1973). Like many others who have been at the old public mental hospitals in Michigan, Iāve had to struggle with my own problems, the abuse I experienced, and the failure to receive adequate treatment over the years.
On two previous occasions Iāve written about my experiences at Pontiac for āMad in America.ā (https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/01/committed-at-16-memories-state-hospital/and State Hospital Memories: More of My Story – Mad In America). For my second article, I also used the Detroit Free Press Archives to help verify my account.
To give you a sense of the seriousness of what Iām talking about, these are some of the problems I had at Pontiac: a lack of heat in the bedrooms in winter, abuse in the administration of electroshock treatment, long-term memory and speech impairment, physical abuse by staff, lack of constructive use of my time, lack of age appropriate treatment (I was 16-17), severe loss of weight, multiple dental cavities, and Scurvy of the gums, and an overly heavy focus on somatic treatment, and failure to provide sufficient other treatment. (Please see the articles above for a more complete description of my difficulties).
The Pontiac State Hospital/Clinton Valley lost its accreditation in 1979 for failing to meet minimum standards of care and was closed in 1997. But I found no indication in my research that the Department of Mental Health had ever apologized to its former patients who received substandard and/or abusive care over the years of its operation. Nor did I find that it has ever compensated anyone or had any plans to do so.
Recently in Australia, recommendations were made to publicly apologize to former patients who experienced abuse and provide compensation. (Willingham, R., āMistreated Victorian mental health patients should be given compensation and a public apology, report finds,ā Australian Broadcasting Company, June 12, 2023, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-13/mental-health-mistreatment-calls-for-redress-apology/102468454). A mental health consultant with lived experience recommended that involuntary mental health patients in Victoria who suffered āgross human rights violationsā should be offered financial compensation and a public apology. He also recommended setting up a restorative justice process, whereby former patients and caregivers would be given a chance to discuss publicly the trauma they suffered. The consultant also acknowledged, however, that if the Victoria government were to acknowledge the harm done it would be the first government in the world to do so.
I hope that Michigan could also be a leader in restorative justice and reparations for the mentally ill. You might begin by sending out a questionnaire to former patients of public mental health hospitals (now closed) to determine their view of the treatment they received and the complaints they have. This would give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem and if further steps are necessary. The list might include Pontiac/Clinton Valley, Northville, Ypsilanti, Traverse City, Lafayette Clinic, Caro, Detroit Psychiatric Institute, and Eloise. I believe a sufficiently large number of surviving former patients could be found through newspapers notices or other means. After that, if you determine the problem is widespread and serious enough, you might want a subcommittee to interview some of them in detail. I would be willing to come myself if called upon.
I know that Michigan is now experiencing a crisis in providing public mental health services to those in need. But I think a full accounting of the past would be important in understanding where you have come from, understanding past mistakes, and planning a better future for Michigan Mental Health. Taking account the viewpoints of former patients can always add something to any discussion of public mental health problems.
Michael E Sturman, M.A., Psychology, Univ. Detroit, ā69. Eugene, OR.
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Hello Mr. Sturman,
My name is Gregory Weigand. I am 53yo. I was at an offshoot of the Clinton Valley Center called Fairlawn (for adolescents), in 1981 (age 10), 1982 (in Maplewood unit) and again in 1984 & 1985 (In Applewood unit). In 1987 (age 16), I was in a wing of CVC called Meadowview which had 5 floors (Meadowview 1-5), M4 being the girls’ floor. During my 1981-82 campaign there, I was sodomized by a male staff member there who worked the graveyard shift when it’s bedtime and lights out with only enough light from a door left ajar to allow use the bathroom across the hallway but left enough dark shadowy area in the room (especially behind the door where I slept). On this fateful night I was awakened by an obviously male body and accompanying voice who must have eased his way into my bed behind me and recited in a whisper my home address and telephone number and stated with purposeful implication in no uncertain terms that if I were to say anything, accidents in and out of the facility would inevitably happen! Since that time anything relating to therapy never worked for me because during the 1980’s I felt shame that I caused this, it’s my fault, coupled with the way I was raised in the 1970’s that dictated guys (including children) did not object to anything an adult said as well as ‘being a man’ means that you don’t display or vocalize feelings. Because this staff member employed a whisper instead of normal voice and was behind me in the dark, I could never hope to realize this person’s identity. There were one on one therapies and group therapies but not one single time did I utter a single word. My mother (who is still alive at 77) would be called in to Fairlawn to be involved in my one on one’s (as well as my younger brother) and I would say nothing that would be therapy related, only asking my family how things were going at home. I returned to Fairlawn in 1984 and even after departing two years prior, still didn’t involve myself in therapy (just tuned it out). The incident and being in that place at all has had an effect on me that has stayed with me to this day and has contributed to the person I have become which has led to intermittent jail and prison stays. In 1987 I was again returned to CVC but in the teenager section. There is where the haunting tunnels are in the basement where as a younger person witnessed the adult patients scream their rage and protest over what they were forced to endure. Horrible, even for 1987! I got released back home in the summer of ’87 and was expected to return to high school and my community as ‘rehabilitated’. Far from it! Went with mom to juvenile court to have my record expunged. In recent years I’ve wanted to sue either the state hospital or the people behind the funding of such a place in the name of accountability and psychological damage because it just wasn’t those years I’ve experienced trauma but a trauma that has continued into my 54th year of life. I believe I have endured enough to qualify for some monetary compensation as I liken my experience to that of a prisoner wrongfully convicted in that these things happened through no fault of my own. Because my juvie record has been erased to all eyes with the possible exception of a records department somewhere in a Google ‘cloud’ or some other digital form of record keeping, my current thinking leads me to believe my existence at Fairlawn/CVC may be eradicated through the passage of time. The only thing I can offer as a form of proof that I was ever there (3 times) is based on my
memories, the names of people that worked there as well as people I’ve friended over the years via social media who’ve been there in the past, whether they were there prior, during or after the time I was there. I now know I’m not alone based on this comment section. For a reference, here are the following names of staff members as well as patient that I can recollect:
STAFF: (1981-82) Judy Warwick, Elaine Kalata, Paul Martin, Sheila Metcalf, Gwen Baker, Felix Jones?, Bill Hinch? PATIENTS: Randy Googleman, Scott Hall, Darnell Tate, et al (1984-85) Ron Baranski, Pearl Goldman, Greg Haley, Steve Minor, Rich McLavish, Jeff Buehl, Alicia Oliver, Karen Bartholomew, Judy Struski, et al. PATIENTS: Daniel Jenkins, Jim/Jeff? Wheeler, Jason Faust, John Lefler, Brian Tarket, Bill Hill, Peter Schoeber, et al. (1987-Meadowview 5) Sally Gro and her husband whose name fails me. PATIENTS: Brandy Patton (MV 4), Bobby Lefler, et al. I am hopeful that for psychological long lasting damages that have been done to me as well as others that I either know or don’t that we can somehow receive a monetary award for our trauma that has continued to affect our everyday lives, making us consistently leery of everyday folk we are surrounded by because of our past experiences because it has a profound effect on who we trust, confide in and it is a very small social circle and is usually awkward at the least to be socially acceptable by others as well as us putting trust and faith in others whether it be new family members, others in the workplace as well as how we are approached by others and how we are reserved to divulge our past to others that we may hope to keep our experiences confidential. I am not sure how to start a lawsuit or other litigation but I am more than willing to give a written/oral account to someone who has the capability or means to start such an action as well as being supportive of others who may have been a victim of similar situations. My name is Gregory Weigand and I can currently (10/27/24) be reached at 586-443-3621 or [email protected] for further assistance, support and clarification. Anyone who has our best interests in mind amd former patients are invited to reach out to me at will for such matters that may result in recompense for our collective travails. Thanks to Michael E Sturman for shedding a light on this place and taking the time and care to have a concern for us that either preceded or followed him during his time in the same place.
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Gregory, Words cannot express the horrors you had to endure and the awful damage that must have been done to you. You faced a future fraught with problems in large part of what occurred at Pontiac. I, too, was in the same situation and initially and for many years faced severe problems. But, luckily, I was able to somehow escape the horrible life that followed your hospitalizations. I wish your case could be brought to trial, not only for your sake for but all of us who have suffered and been damaged by Pontiac. However, this has never occurred, as far as I know.
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Dear Mr Sturman,
There was a book written on the institution just prior or just after itās demolition. Meant to get a copy many years ago now. Probably didnāt due to trying to put the past in the past but found your writings and thoughts just now. Itās hard to put it behind one, isnāt it?
I shall read over your articles thoroughly soon and comment on them.
Please keep this email used with the comments private, but you can email me if you wish.
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Dear LS, I do not see your e-mail address. MIA keeps e-mails confidential. You can contact me through Facebook under the same name.
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I am very interested in what you have to say about The Pontiac State Hospital/Clinton Valley. I would like some newspaper or other organization to do a study of the survivors of the old state priors who were patients there prior to the closures of 1979 or thereabouts and publish it. I think it would be quite revealing. I would also like to help bring about a restorative justice project where those surviving staff of Pontiac and the other old hospitals would make admissions of what really went on there and offer their apologies and surviving patients present their complaints, and the state legislature offer monetary damages to those who were hurt. You might also want to read a recent article in Mother Jones which also points to abusive and deficient care at public hospitals: https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2023/10/universal-health-services-reveal-podcast-foster-kids-uhs/
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I left what I thought would be some helpful information a few days ago, but I see it never posted. I am going to leave this and see if it works.
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My mother was institutionalized at this hospital three times. I never thought about what it was like for her. Your contribution is helping me understand things that I never understood. My mother would wake up every night screaming…every night of my childhood. I never thought that her screams could have come from being tortured in a mental hospital. It takes me back, she was placed on a psychotropic medication that she took religiously for the majority of her life. I do not know anything about the two time she was admitted there but I do know about the third time. My mother had eight miscarriages and one still birth. Then after some time my mother believed she was pregnant again. She told me that when she looked in the mirror she could see her belly extended. My mother believed this so much that she went to the hospital when she felt that she was going into labor. The doctor checked her and determined that she was not even pregnant. The doctor did perform a tubal ligation on her. My mother went “crazy” after recovery and was placed back at the Pontiac state hospital (pseudocyesis). I asked her what it was like there and all she said was “it was a bad place and then I had you”. My mother told me that while she was in the psych ward they scheduled for her to have a D&C (dilatation and curettage) and instead they found me in her womb. So in a weird way I have been to the same mental hospital as my mother and as you. Thank you for sharing your experience with all of us. I too am in the human service field and preparing for the CPCE to get my MA as a Clinical Mental Health Counselor. I am sad to say that my mother has now passed but she lived a very full life and thanks to the power of Jesus she was able to stop taking the psychotropic medicine that she was put on in the 70’s. I hope that you are successful in your endeavor to bring justice to those who were harmed by barbaric practices and a broken MH system.
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Thanks for your posting. I have tried to get others involved in throwing light on what Pontiac was like, so far without success except for a few like yourself. I would like the Legislature and the State Department of Mental Health to further investigate Pontiac and make known to the public in what it was really like. I would also like to see a Restorative Justice process whereby Pontiac survivors and/or their families can confront the some of the surviving staff member and receive an apology, and for the state to compensate survivors who had particularly difficult experiences there. I have written to all the members of the Michigan House Behavioral Health Committee and the Michigan Department of Mental Health. But I have not received a single reply as yet from any of them saying even saying so much as they were sorry for my bad experiences at Pontiac.
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1974-75. I worked there for about 18 mos, in my twenties. Older hourly staff, had to endure the poor condition too. Daily risking being physicaly injured. just to keep such a low paying hourly job.
I learned so much from them. Younger workers came in and out of poorly paid state civil service employment. Advancement to a better paid supervisor level position kept a few from leaving.
One time a patient returned from a visit to Pontiac Mall, just across Telegraph Rd, and attacked a half dozen coworkers, slashing them with a hunter’s skinning knife that he had bought.
So much blood.
Prozac type psychotropic meds were still a couple of decades from being available. I personaly witnessed some deliberately cruel treatment delivered by the most brutal of coworkers,
In an effort to controll patients.
Race relations among staff were also unbelievably bad.!
I myself was attacked by a fellow staff member. A senior supervisor was most unhappy to stumble upon that scene, in the early morning hours near the end of our shift.
I should only say that he was like many of my fellow white workers,
Identifying themselves as ‘ KLAN’.
My transfer to work at to a new state short term treatment facility in Lansing was already due to happen any day. That’s when I left my Clinton Valley Center nightmare behind me.
I worked nights and afternoons there at the just built hospital, since it
allowed me to finally finish my course work at MSU.
But the pretext that the small state facility
could successfully serve the commuinty by quickly stablizing the mentally ill, and placing them in half way
care homes never proved itself to be successful.
Although our our tiny 4 ward hospital was granted accreditation , others failed.
State hospitals thus lost federal funds. One criticism our evaluators mentioned was LOW PAY SCALE for hospital staff.
No other such revolving door type psych clinics were ever built In the State of Michigan,
I ultimately simply quit my job after three years because I got tired of being beaten up. Graduated from college, and like many others, moved to Texas .
I have since found out that the entire Mich. Dept, of Mental Health has closed down. Ever since Ronald Reagan cut off federal funding to state psychiatric hospitals nearly all US cities suffer with homelessness, mostly due th the lack of care for the mentally ill,
.
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I am grateful for your revealing account of what went on behind the scenes at Clinton Valley Center. My experience was at The Pontiac State Hospital as a patient in 1960 before it was renamed Clinton Valley. Your account of the “brutal” treatment of some staff towards patients, though, is consistent with my own experience of seeing patients being beaten by staff on many occasions, and my own experience of being assaulted by them. I am not surprised at what you say about the staff “identifying as Klan (meaning KKK),” either. The Klan is known for its widespread brutality and murder in its attempt to control Blacks, Catholics, and other minorities. The piece that is missing, however, is how they got away with it. You’d think the hospital administration could have done something to stop the brutalizing of patients and staff by other staff, but they didn’t. I think it is long past time for a Restorative Justice approach to the abuses of Pontiac/Clinton Valley where former staff such as yourself meet surviving patients and have a frank discussion about what truly went on there, and just restitution provided by the State of Michigan for their lapses in oversight. I have made this proposal to the Michigan House Behavioral Health Committee, but never received a response back.
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If this were to happen we would have to consider not holding former employees criminally accountable in the interest of likely compensation/reparation.
That being said, I wouldn’t lose any sleep if the state decided to prosecute those that committed any offense.
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Gregory, The state already has a Conditional Privilege, a legal term meaning its actions will automatically be immune from prosecution unless a strong showing of malice can be made. Often enough, too, the complaints of patients are not supported by entries in their charts, which allows the state to claim they never happened at all, are made up or patient’s delusions. Witnesses can be hard to find. I think there is also a general disregard of patients as “schizophrenic” and “incurably mentally ill,” and a “who cares” attitude about them. My own family doctor told me that “no one cares about you” when I approached him for medication following my discharge from Pontiac State despite the deplorable condition I was in. Needless to say, he refused to give me any. I, too, would like to see more prosecutions of Pontiac staff, particularly those higher up such as the medical superintendent who had responsibility for overseeing this whole mess. I think that would very much help bring the state around to doing something about its neglect of the mentally ill and its poor performing programs.
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I had an interesting exchange with someone who went to the same high school in Michigan as I did, who is now a prominent attorney in the state. I sent him a link to this article describing the horrendous experiences I had at the Pontiac State Hospital, and this was his reply:
” I represented people who were imprisoned at Pontiac Sate, Eloise, and Traverse City mental hospitals. Medieval dungeons at best!! Shock treatments and frontal lobotomies were de rigeur for the day!… Mike, let’s get that bastard doctor who gave you shock treatment!”
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I just wish I could get more information on my g-grandmother who was there from 1930 until around 1952 (her death). It was such a family secret that I didnāt even know of this until doing genealogical research and seeing her listed as āinmateā, then later, as patient. An elderly uncle confirmed this for me in 2014.
He said it was considered āa disgraceā. I could tell it still rocked him despite his not knowing her. Uncle told my that my grandmother was forced by her father, to sign the commitment papers. Then forbade them to ever go see her. My heart hurts for her. Her son died as a small child in 1912. I have always wondered if she never recovered from thatā at the same time, g-grandfather died at the Bertha Fisher poor house in the early 1040s. He was an alcoholic. Back then, it didnāt take much to commit a woman. I have come to the conclusion she must have been lobotomized there. Itās what they didā¦
I would just like to find out where she was buried. Her name isnāt listed on any of the memorials from there. An elderly relative gave me a copy of the death certificate (( itās tucked away in my files somewhere )). The certificate didnāt give much information. Iāll have to revisit that document.
I think my father drove past the hospital grounds once when we were little children, in the early 60s. He mocked the ācraziesā. He made no mention of anyone he had knowledge of ever living there.
Now though, I know where those threats came from, in our dysfunctional home back then; ā Iāll have you locked up!!ā Or āWe will be in the Poor Houseā.
Michael, Iām sorry you had to endure that.
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Elizabeth, I sympathize with your plight. I’m not sure what you can do about it. You might try contacting the Michigan Dept. of mental health and see if they know where your grandmother is buried (333 S. Grand Street, P.O. Box 30195, Lansing, MI 48909). The problem with them may be that they are unwilling to release information to anyone not the next of kin. Another problem may be is that they destroy patient’s charts after a certain number of years. I tried to obtain my file from the Pontiac State Hospital some years ago, and they told me it had been destroyed. I know ancestry.com has old obituaries, if there ever was one for your grandmother. It’s probably not that unusual. In Oregon a number of cremation urns were discovered in the basement of the Oregon State Hospitals and efforts are being made to find those who they should go to. Pontiac State Hospital was demolished in 2000, and any remains probably with it, but they may have been transferred to Lansing. Here is an article about efforts being made in Oregon to unite family with patient remains.
https://www.oregonlive.com/history/2020/10/remains-from-1936-found-in-oregon-state-hospitals-room-of-forgotten-souls-reunited-with-family-back-east.html
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When I was there I was never abused!
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Kathleen, It is good to hear that you weren’t abused at Pontiac/Clinton Valley. I wonder, though, how successful your treatment was. In measuring treatment outcome, usually symptoms of illness, family and social relationships, educational/occupational status, and other variables are measured. Often former patients live a marginal life in great part because of the poor care they received there, living the rest of their lives on the limited funding provided by SSI disability payments and other government program. At least some of its former patients such as myself must also bear the legacy of a highly traumatic experience. Pontiac lost its accreditation because it did not provide adequate treatment to its patients, did not have sufficient professionally trained staff, patients spent too much time doing nothing, etc. After that it could not collect insurance money, and was entirely dependent on the legislature and the patients who could pay. The legislature refused to pay the cost of bringing it up to standards. Finally, the Department of Mental Health closed it, forcing many patients out on the streets because of their failure to provide appropriate facilities in the community to meet patient needs. I understand that Michigan public mental health continues to be in a crisis with no end in sight. Other states face similar problems.
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