Something Gained, Much Lost

Abstract

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Communications and UpdatesFull AccessSomething Gained, Much LostRachel Morehouse, M.D., F.R.C.P.(C.).Rachel MorehouseSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., F.R.C.P.(C.).Published Online:1 Sep 2015https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2015.15050633AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail To the Editor: The short submission, “Charles Darwin and the Asylum Letters” (1), published in the April 2015 issue of the Journal, highlights the very important agricultural benefits of asylums in previous times. Not only would staff be involved in the growing of food for the patients in the asylums, but working in the asylum garden would serve as an important occupational therapy for patients.As a youngster, our family lived between an asylum, 1 km to the east, and its farm, 1 km to the west. My school was 2 km to the east, so there were many times when I would “catch a ride” on a hay wagon or a vegetable cart when it was going by our house. Sometimes the male patients would stop in to chat with my father and try to “borrow” a cigarette from him. The female patients would sell their blueberries picked in the fields near the farm to my mother. We were an integrated community. We were a neighborhood. They did not fear us; we did not fear them. The asylum (which everyone called “The Annex”) also supplied fresh vegetables to a much larger facility (“The Provincial Hospital”) in the city.With deinstitutionalization in the 1970s, these men and women were moved into the community to live in group homes and special care homes (2). A few times I saw some of them in the city, not homeless but not employed. I think that they were happier on the farm. The occupational therapy at the farm was real—they could eat it. They knew that their work at the farm was helping their friends and neighbors. Perhaps much has been gained—but from what I have witnessed, much has been lost.From the Department of Psychiatry, Saint John Regional Hospital, N.B., Canada, and Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., Canada.The author reports no financial relationships with commercial interests.References1 King M: Charles Darwin and the asylum letters. Am J Psychiatry 2015; 172:321–322Link, Google Scholar2 Guzman, R: History of the New Brunswick Psychiatric Association: From the Asylum to Brain Imaging. Ottawa, Canadian Psychiatric Association, 2001Google Scholar FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 172Issue 9 September 01, 2015Pages 911-911 Metrics PDF download History Accepted 1 June 2015 Published online 1 September 2015 Published in print 1 September 2015