The Native Iowan

It started in the 70s. The idea that those poor unfortunate folks in the “county home” or the “mental health institute” would be better off “at home” or “on their own”. It was Liberal Blindness looking for an outlet, a pat on the back, recognition.

It was Liberal Blindness that increased the suffering of those “ill”, or affected. It was the Liberal Blindness that considered it “progressive” to “release” those “patients” who were considered “well enough”.

I was 18 years old in 1976. I worked the 2nd-shift at the Iowa State Mental Health Institute (MHI), in Independence, Iowa. I was a Psych Aide. I wore a white uniform and was there to “assist” the nurses and doctors and therapists. I had a key that opened every single door in the entire facility. It was a huge facility.

Above is the “Main Building”. There were at least a dozen large, old buildings, and one large, new, “Children’s” facility.

Established in 1893. With up to 2000 beds, it saw its highest number of patients in the mid-1900s. At one time it was a working farm where patients (some patients) got to work. Somewhere in the 60s it was determined that patients working, though good for their mental health, was close to slave labor, so that had to end.

By the time I was there in the 70s the population was quite small. Not more than a couple hundred people. Most of the wards were closed off. The once bustling facility was a ghost town. We only had the Mens ward, the female ward, the chronic ward, the geriatric ward and the teen ward. With the children in their own facility.

I worked all wards, got to know the facility and the patients pretty well.

My job was that of the basic “strong-arm”. I was on the ward to be the enforcer for the nurse or the therapist or the doctor. The population was kept pliant through medication.

Ever hear the song “Kill Your Son”? By Lou Reed, it was about dosing patients with Thorazine. Here’s a blurb about Lou Reed… “Kill Your Sons” refers to Lou Reed’s tragic upbringing, consisting of electroshock conversion therapy. Locations such as Creedmoor and Payne Whitney are mentioned as facilities Lou was sent to during his teenage years.’

In those days, before kids had rights, parents could send their kids to an “institute” for being unruly, disagreeable or, as in Reeds case, Bisexual.

It was during my tenure at the MHI that policy started changing. Patients that were considered “able to” were “sent home” with a 60day supply of meds.

I was very friendly with one such man, Charlie Martin.

Charlie had all the symptoms of a socially unacceptable dude. He was big (huge), black, quite uneducated, probably unemployable, and suffered from narcolepsy: “Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder causing uncontrollable daytime sleepiness and sudden “sleep attacks,” stemming from the brain’s inability to regulate sleep-wake cycles, often linked to low orexin levels and an autoimmune response, leading to symptoms like cataplexy (muscle weakness), sleep paralysis, and hallucinations, manageable with stimulants, naps, and other medications, but with no cure.”

Charlie’s medical condition was treated by the Drs through administering 5mg dexedrine 3 times a day. This made Charlie unable to sleep (15mgs Dex will keep you awake very nicely, thank you). For the uneducated, dexedrine is pure speed. 5mg would keep me awake for a day or more. Charlie got 15mg everyday, and could never, ever sleep.

So they administered a big dose of Seconal at bedtime. “Seconal (secobarbital) is a short-acting barbiturate, a central nervous system depressant once used for insomnia, anxiety, and pre-surgery sedation, but it is now rarely prescribed in the U.S. due to high addiction potential and safer alternatives”

So my buddy, Charlie, gets released with a big bottle of speed and a big bottle of downers. He was back in a week, handcuffed, in a police car, in trouble, again. He’d sold his drugs, got all drunked-up, passed out hard, woke up in the jail house in Waterloo, Iowa, and proceeded to tear the place to pieces.

Charlie was in and out, in and out. The State was downsizing, allowed a revolving door scenario for Charlie and others like him.

Charlie simply could not cope in public. He’d last a day or two, sell his medication on the street, raise hell and have a party, pass out somewhere in public, then be wild and uncontrollable when he woke up.

I left the MHI at the end of the summer of ’76. Moved on to attend College and pursue a degree in psychology.

I heard later that year that Charlie had been shot dead by police.

So now, 50 years after releasing the mentally ill patients from the institutes across the the USofA, spending megabucks to mange an unmanageable situation, Trump is looking to rebuild, reinstitute the wholesale care and housing of those homeless and unable to care for themselves.

I thought the decision in the 70 to be a lazy move in the name of do-gooding. I believe from an educated stance that safe care of those suffering mental illness is essential in a modern society.

As I said, The Liberal Blindness = Mental Illness.