From the Philadelphia Inquirer, Delaware County [Pa.] Daily Times, AP, with historic photos from Philly.com:

Pennsylvania’s historic Pennhurst Center, once the focus of landmark litigation that sparked nationwide changes in treatment for people with intellectual disabilities, opened last night as a Halloween-themed haunted house attraction over the protests of disability rights advocates.

Advocates had unsuccessfully sought an injunction to prevent the opening of the “Pennhurst Asylum” show on the grounds of the property, once known as Eastern State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic.

Even before the injunction was denied on Friday afternoon advocates called for a boycott of the attraction, which references historic abuse and neglect of the institution’s patients and features a “registration nurse” who tells visitors what the asylum’s “doctor” has planned for them. (See video here.)

The crumbling facility was closed in 1987 in the wake of a federal lawsuit alleging years of abuse and neglect. The suit, which spawned years of appeals and three U.S. Supreme Court rulings, alleged that residents had been beaten by nurses, strapped to beds, left naked or alone and drugged into stupors. At the time, the closure of the 600-acre facility was hailed as a civil rights victory.

Pennhurst property owner Richard Chakejian said said he and his crew are “just trying to pull off a fun, orderly event and we’re excited about that.”

From the New York Times:

A federal judge has ordered the state of New York to move some 4,300 people with mental illness out of warehouse-like institutions that keep them segregated from society.

The order by Judge Nicholas Garaufis follows his decision last fall that the state was illegally discriminating against people with mental illness by holding them in privately-run “adult homes” that were just as restrictive as the state-run institutions they were intended to replace.

Judge Garaufis ordered the state to develop at least 1,500 units of supportive housing a year for the next three years. The state had argued that supportive housing would be unacceptably expensive. Commenting on the proposal submitted by the state, the judge wrote, “The court is disappointed and, frankly, incredulous that defendants sincerely believed this proposal would suffice.”

Earlier posts here and here and here.

See also: The 2002 series of articles by Clifford J. Levy of the New York Times that described scenes of misery, squalor and exploitation in the adult homes.

By Joe Shapiro, National Public Radio:

Judi Chamberlin, an outspoken advocate for the rights and dignity of people with mental illness, died of lung disease over the weekend at her home in Arlington, Mass. She was 65.

Shapiro calls her “a civil rights hero from a civil rights movement you may never have heard of.”

Chamberlin’s road to advocacy began when she was hospitalized against her will for depression in 1966, and was shocked by the way she was treated. She wrote a book, On Our Own, that became a manifesto for patients and influenced the mental health establishment.

She called her movement “Mad Pride,” and argued that people with mental illness need to have a say in their own treatment. An excerpt:

Chamberlin told people with mental illness that they were, like everyone else, people with quirks and differences, but with strengths and abilities, too. She wanted people to reclaim the description “mad” as something that was OK.

“She changed it from a word that was a pejorative word,” says [Robert] Whitaker [author of Mad in America, a history of the treatment of people with mental illness in the United States]. “That was saying to the world at large: We are worthy individuals, and our minds our worthy, and they’re to be respected.”

See also:

– Facing death, a plea for the dignity of psychiatric patients — Boston Globe

– Bibliography from the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy

From the Chicago Tribune:

A convicted felon has been charged with the murder of a dementia patient at an Illinois nursing home, exposing the dangerous mix of violent and vulnerable residents at residential facilities in that state.

Ardyce Nauden, 62, has been charged with homicide in the beating death of 72-year-old Andres Cardona, who wandered into Nauden’s room and began eating his lunch. Nauden, who has a history of felony drug convictions and aggressive behavior, was described as “psychotic.”

Illinois is an outlier among states in its reliance on nursing homes to house adults with mental illness, including thousands of felons such as Nauden whose disabilities qualify them for Medicaid-funded nursing care.

A recent Tribune investigation documented numerous cases when elderly and disabled people such as Cardona were assaulted and even murdered by fellow nursing-home residents. The governor and state legislature have held hearings in response and are considering a series of reforms aimed at making the facilities safer and overhauling how Illinois houses and treats the mentally ill.

See also:

Convicted felons are regulars at sheltered workshop for the disabled – Salt Lake Tribune

Sheltered workshops in Utah serve the dual role of providing second chances for felons and jobs for people with developmental disabilities. Most states avoid mixing the two populations, but Utah officials said they have had no reports of clients being harmed.

A supervisor at a sheltered workshop said the ex-offenders are needed to keep such programs afloat because they bring the skills needed to attract manufacturing contracts.

From USA Today:

Comedian Howie Mandel answers questions about his new book, “Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me” , arriving in stores today. The book details his lifelong struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

An excerpt:

Q: In your book, you say any public restroom freaks you out because of the germ factor. You write about not being able to take your daughter into one when she was a toddler. What are some of your other issues?

A: The difference between you and me is that even when I wash my hands, I can’t get it out of my mind that they’re not clean. I have to go back to the sink, I can’t even continue with my day. I have to leave the party, leave work. Those thoughts are so intrusive and on a continual loop that I can’t inhibit it. Everybody has irregular thoughts, but not like this.

Earlier post here.

(USA Today photo)

From the Chicago Tribune:

Mental health advocates in Illinois are seeking a major overhaul in the way the state manages patients with mental illness, arguing that the state should not be placing people in nursing homes when they could be treated more cheaply and effectively in community settings.

The volatile mix of felons, mentally ill people and seniors in Illinois facilities today serves none of those populations, advocates said, and records show elderly and disabled residents have been assaulted, raped and even murdered in the homes.

From the [Newark, NJ] Star-Ledger:

A haunted house at the Red Mill Museum in Clinton, NJ, has angered mental health advocates, who say  the “Asylum of Terror” theme reinforces negative stereotypes about mental illness.

Advertisements for the fictional show warn visitors that the wretched souls imprisoned in the asylum were tormented by “dementia, paranoia, violent sociopathic behaviors, physical abnormalities and deformities,” which led them to torture and murder all 200 staff members in 1942.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness issued a nationwide alert about the haunted house, saying, “It’s trick or treat time again. We don’t mind ghosts and goblins, but when ‘haunted house’ attractions become ‘insane asylums,’ featuring ‘mental patients’ as murderous ghouls, we protest.”

(Star-Ledger photo)