ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Six miles outside of Annapolis lie the decaying bones of a dinosaur.
They don’t belong to a prehistoric animal, but to Crownsville Hospital Center, a mostly vacant former asylum that costs the State of Maryland around $1 million a year.
Many of the methods used to treat mental illness when Crownsville opened in 1911 have essentially gone extinct.
The availability and quality of medications have increased, and providers are trending toward treatment through community-based services, like psychiatric rehabilitation, housing and vocational programs, according to Jeff Richards, the incoming president of the Mental Health Association of Maryland and the CEO of Mosaic Community Services.
“There’s so many people that probably 20, 30, 40 years ago would have lived out their lives in one of those large institutions [who] are living in the community and doing great with the right range of support available to them,” Richardson said.
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This appears to be a threat to DHMH facilities that are still open and the likelihood of a consolidation of the Developmentally Disabled facilities that contain unplaceable individuals.And yes,I understand the difference between the Crownsville population and that of, say, Holly Center,but pencils are being sharpened and inevitable cuts are being made regardless of definition.
ReplyDeleteThis artical is talking about the state capital and the people in it.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile mentally ill individuals roam the streets of our city and all cities in Maryland. There are NOT quality medications and available resources. When a sick individual is well medicated he/she ceases to feel the need for the medication and goes off the medication and wanders the streets again. Constant treatment is needed and structure but that went the way of the buildings described in this article. SHAME on a country that puts its mental ill out to sleep on the streets. SHAME ON THE USA!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe best solution to the mental health crises in this country, is to round them all up and put them over the boarder in Mexico. Kind of a nice trade.
ReplyDelete