One person's experience

Within my family of origin, as a young boy, an event took place that sent my mother to Dixmont State Hospital, near Pittsburgh, PA. From 1963-67, my mother was a patient in that facility at which time she underwent 23 shock treatments for what I think was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia.

That "medical" center was condemned many years ago. The photos of what remained prior to the purchase of the property and leveling of the buildings can be seen at http://www.dixmontstatehospital.com/

I tried to have sent to me my mother's records and was told by the state of PA that none of the patient's papers remain. All were either burned or lost.

If this is the sort of care one should expect within the psychiatric community, with not only overused and outdated methods of treatment being employed, but also a loss of records, how can one trust these houses of horror?

My mother was never herself after her release from Dixmont. The shock treatments relieved her of practically all of her memories. Mom "lived on" SSD within govt. housing that was psychologically deadening -- more like a prison setting than an apartment home, which was very small, only three tiny rooms with no more than 500 sq. ft.