Welcome back to segment
two on this week's lesson
of community and
independent living.
Within this segment,
I'm going to talk a little
bit about history.
And I will tell you please,
please, please check out
some of the websites and
links that we've provided,
because there's no way
that I can do justice
to the history of people
with disabilities
as it relates
to community living.
On the other hand,
it is important at least
to be introduced to this.
Because for a very, very
long period of time,
and even continuing today,
a broad range of people
with disabilities have been
denied their basic rights
to live in the community.
And if you've been
following along with this
as we go through these lessons,
my hope is that you've come
to the awareness that people
with disabilities are no
different than anyone else.
We all have hopes,
dreams, aspirations.
We all want to
have independence.
We all want to be included
within our communities.
And yet the reality is for a lot
of people with disabilities,
that opportunity has
been denied to them.
Historically there was, and
in some ways still continues,
a push for putting people
who have significant disabilities in institutions.
It's one of the deepest
fears I have, if you will,
with regard to my stepson
is, what happens?
I don't want him to
be institutionalized.
And yet what are the
options out there?
Because over time,
historically, every state
in the United States
had laws on the books
that singled out
people with mental
and/or physical disabilities
to be institutionalized.
And keep in mind too, and this
is something that I think
we want to believe, you know,
part of it in our hearts
is like you
institutionalize someone,
it's for rehabilitation
purposes.
It's to help them gain skills,
knowledge so they can go back
out and be in the community.
The reality is it's
not designed that way.
Institutions are
meant to segregate.
Institutions
keep people away.
And there's very little
planning often times
to help people get out of
institutions and get integrated
into the community.
Because we wanted to
believe that institutions
historically are
compassionate places where
really we're focused
on rehabilitation,
and yet we know differently.
This is one of those
things where as I've
gotten to be older, I come
to look at things and you
realize in your lifetime
how can this have been.
In 1965, and at that point
I was already nine years old
at that point, there
was an expose done.
And I've got a few slides
that I will show you.
We've got a link to the
entire set of slides.
But it's from a book that's
called "Christmas in Purgatory."
And there were two gentlemen who --Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan.
And what they did was they
were able to gain access
to the back wards of a
number of institutions
for people with
mental illness.
But, again, back in
that day, particularly,
mental illness and mental
retardation, if you will,
they were combined together.
So you had these institutions
that had a wide range of
people that were there.
But what kind of services?
And the services that
Kaplan and Blatt heard about
were that it was pretty awful. That there were no services.
That it really was
just warehousing.
And so they went in --
and, again,
when you see these pictures,
they're kind of grainy.
They're all black and white.
Because 1965, hidden
camera kind of an approach.
But I want you to look at
these next five or six pictures
and imagine what
it would be like if you
or a family member had to be
in one of these places.
Because it's pretty horrendous.
So with that, I'll turn it over
and look at some
of the pictures.
There was a quote, though, and
I think this is valuable too
that they put at the
beginning of the book.
And their quote was,
"There is a hell on earth,
and in America there
is a special inferno.
We were visitors there
during Christmas, 1965."
To provide more context
for their work,
let me read the preface
and then we will look at
some of the pictures.
"One of my close friends,
Fred Kaplan,
is a freelance photographer
who has worked
for many national publications.
We were to arrange to meet
with each of several key
administrative persons in a
variety of public institutions
for the mentally retarded.
If we gained an
individual's cooperation,
in spite of the obvious
great risk he would be
assuming with respect to
his institutional status
and possible job security, we
would be taken on a "tour"
of the back wards
and those parts of
the institution that he
was most ashamed of."
"On the "tour" Fred Kaplan
would take pictures of what
we observed, using a hidden
camera attached to his belt.
During the month of
December, 1965, we visited
-- at our own expense --
five state institutions
for the mentally retarded
in four eastern states.
Through the efforts
of courageous
and humanitarian colleagues,
including two superintendents
who put their reputations
and professional positions
in jeopardy, we
were able to visit
the darkest
corridors and vestibules
without being detected
by ward personnel
and professional staff."
So now we're going to look
at some of these pictures.
So the first picture you see,
look at the series
of beds there.
The quotes that are associated
with these pictures
are ones that are
actually in the book.
These are not ones
that I have generated.
The next picture seeing
some women just lying --
sitting there on a bench.
Nothing to do.
The following picture, a
group of-it looks like
primarily men
wandering around.
Some dressed, some not.
The next picture of a man
sitting there on the steps
with a caption, "My friends
forsake me like a memory lost."
The following couple
pictures show images of
literally what would be
hundreds of baby cribs
that were in those
institutions as well.
Another picture of some
kids sitting around,
and I like the quote
on this one too.
It says, "There are only
two things wrong with most
special education for the
mentally handicapped; it
isn't special, and
it isn't education."
And that was written
by Alice Metzner.
As I just mentioned, the
pictures you saw are from
a pictorial essay in 1965.
Moving forward
nearly 40 years,
there was a Congressional
study conducted in 2003.
The administrators in
more than 500 juvenile
detention centers across
the country were surveyed
regarding who was
in their centers.
Surprisingly, two-third
of these facilities
held children and
adolescents who were simply
awaiting mental
health treatment.
These children had
committed no crime.
There was no offense.
Their only reason for
being there was that
the state had no other
place to put them.
Because their families did
not have the resources
to take care of them,
the state ended up putting them
in a juvenile detention center.
If you look at this map of the
U.S., it shows that 33 states
held children and adolescents
with mental illness
without any
charges against them.
Each night, nearly
2,000 children
were housed in these facilities.
This accounted for 7% of
the entire population
in juvenile detention centers. Children as young as
seven years old were
in these centers.
A quarter provided no or poor
quality mental health services.
In addition, the
administrators reported
that over half of
these facilities
provided inadequate levels
of staff training.
So in summary, I would
say within this segment
we're talking -- there's
been a long history
of segregation and
institutionalization.
We still have this as
a, as an ongoing issue.
It's still a problem for
many, many individuals.
And that particularly, and
perhaps heart-breakingly so,
children, little ones,
are not immune
from being institutionalized.
So with that, we'll move to our
next segment where we talk
about this idea of access and
inclusion as a civil right.
