Byberry Mental Hospital, Philadelphia's House of Horrors

https://allthatsinteresting.com/byberry-mental-hospital

by mardiyah • 5 years ago

38 17 5 years ago

xrd• 5 years ago

It seems to me there are four types of homeless people. People traumatized by an event in their adulthod such that they can no longer function, like veterans. Another is people who had incredibly bad luck, or a bad spouse, or a health care crisis, often women. Another is people who abuse drugs, either before or after becoming homeless. It seems like we have potential solutions to solve at least the first two, meaning those two groups might respond to housing and treatment, and there are some funded institutions (veterans hospitals and charities, churches) that can assist in a variety of ways. The third category we might solve by trying different methods than just criminalizing them, treating it as a healthcare issue, there are some innovative attempts in Canada and Europe (not so much in the US, IMHO).

The fourth category seems to be people that are severely mentally ill (there is probably some cross over with the abusing of drugs, but I don't think that is a moral failing). Without things like mental hospitals, we cannot effectively care for them, their families cannot care for them, and their impact on society is immense.

I think about the book "One Flew Over a Cuckoos Nest" which documents the horrors of an asylum. I believe this was the moment in US society when we started getting rid of those types of hospitals, and people that relied on them, both families and the people suffering from the illness themselves, were dumped into society to fend for themselves.

Is this an accurate assessment? I feel like we won't be able to tackle homelessness until we address this elephant in the room, and who is going to want to care for these people. It seems like we must as a society address this, it isn't something that can be solved in a small scale.

rsj_hn3• 5 years ago

My impression after being around homeless for many years, is that the key point that must always be understood is that chronically homeless are incapable of managing their own affairs, and therefore need someone else to manage those affairs for them. That could be institutionalization. It could be family or church. In the worst case it could be prison. But all of the above is better than leaving them on the street.

Now everything else follows. We can ask -- why can't they managing their own affairs? If it's mental illness, then is it possible to treat that illness, and get them to a situation where they can manage their affairs? Same for drugs/alcohol, and other things. But this has to be the cornerstone: they lose autonomy and some civil rights until they can demonstrate that they are able to function as independent responsible adults that do not perform antisocial behavior in urban environments. The urban environment must be protected, and the homeless should not be left alone in the streets.

The problem is that we don't have either a legal system or a care system setup (think halfway houses) for that kind of clientele. And some of those halfway houses will require bars on the windows, because for some of the hardcore population, they will refuse the care process. But it must be mandatory, until they demonstrate that they can provide for their own needs and manage their life in a harmonious way with the rest of the urban population.

When I was last in SF, I was having a coffee on Columbus in North beach and saw a homeless man with no pants but a dirty blanket run into the middle of Columbus avenue and take a big dump on the street. Then he started waving his arms and screaming at the cars that were trying to get by him. As long as San Francisco tolerates that behavior and gives that person an option to refuse treatment, then things will just continue to get worse. And high rental prices have nothing to do with it -- there is simply no rent that a person like that could afford to pay, nor would there be any apartment that would accept them.

trevyn4• 5 years ago

I mean, San Francisco has always taken a more principled position on defining the boundaries of freedom and civil rights. It wasn’t so long ago that homosexuality was considered antisocial, could be “treated” in an institution, and was considered offensive to see in public.

LeanderK• 5 years ago

Without things like mental hospitals

Are there really no mental hospitals in the US? I live near one in Germany and the ones on day-leave are just harmless crazy persons living in their own world, totally unable to care for themselves. They do stuff like collect small sticks in the park, wander around yelling something or talking to themselves. They sometimes do weird movements that look like an esoteric workout or "kung-fu". Or sometimes you see two of them talking to each other, in parallel without listing to the other. I think most have an alcohol problem and interestingly they learned to follow covid-rules to be able to buy some beers. But I think they would just be homeless, die or harass people when left to their own.

What do the politicians expect to happen without mental hospitals?

mdm12• 5 years ago

There are inpatient mental hospitals in the US, but they are intended for short-term recovery, not long-term institutionalization. Couple that with health care usually being tied to employment (and not being that great to begin with), it is not a good situation. There are social workers (who are massively underpaid and overworked) that attempt to work with patients to ensure housing and outpatient care, but if the patient doesn't have a support system, they are essentially screwed.

Politicians don't care because the mentally ill are a small and unreliable voting bloc. Shame on the rest of us for allowing this to go on...

germinalphrase• 5 years ago

“ I think about the book "One Flew Over a Cuckoos Nest" which documents the horrors of an asylum. I believe this was the moment in US society when we started getting rid of those types of hospitals, and people that relied on them, both families and the people suffering from the illness themselves, were dumped into society to fend for themselves”

There were a number of exposés and scandals during this period that led to a general backlash against putting people in institutions, yes.

For example, Geraldo Rivera established himself as a young reporter by exposing the terrible conditions at Staten Island's Willowbrook State School.

flerovium• 5 years ago

The vast majority of homeless people are men.[1]

[1] https://endhomelessness.org/demographic-data-project-gender-...

chriselles• 5 years ago

True story…

I grew up within walking distance of Byberry Mental Hospital.

I could see it daily thru the window in the distance from St. Anselm’s Catholic School.

In the 1980’s, after school my friends and I would take our pellet guns in the forest adjacent to Byberry to just target shoot and hang out outside on the then forest edge of the Philadelphia city limits.

All of our parents told us to never enter Byberry hospital grounds, so of course we ignored those orders every single day.

It was split between Old Byberry and New Byberry.

Gothic Old Byberry facilities were long abandoned, while New Byberry continued operations.

It was an incredibly creepy place in terms of gothic architecture, burned out and disheveled facilities, the underground and partially underground tunnels connecting all the buildings, and the detritus left behind.

No BS, we did run across a lot of satanic pentagram graffiti on numerous occasional and locations, with one very elaborately painted and decorated room like straight out of a horror film.

Very carefully painted bright red with black painted satanic pentagrams and symbology, fully furnished. Quite surreal.

Speaking of horror films, I was at Amazon running distribution for their then new music and video categories when I met the writer/director of The Last Broadcast Jersey found footage film that preceded Blair Witch Project, and was filmed in the area, but lost out onto Blair Witch on distro.

I distinctly remember telling him he should consider filming a sequel in Old Byberry Mental Hospital.

Because it wasn’t until I was much older and further away did I come to understand the horrors in that place weren’t too far removed from a concentration camp or horror film.

2 or 3 times we ran across mental hospital patients who were either on day release or just wandering back to where they had once lived.

It was like The Wonder Years meets Hunter S Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Old Byberry Mental Hospital.

ed25519FUUU• 5 years ago

Creepy and interesting! Tell us more about the furnished room.

klyrs2• 5 years ago

...with one very elaborately painted and decorated room like straight out of a horror film.

If it's anything like the abandoned mental health facility I live near, it may have been exactly that: the set for a horror film, meticulously decorated for that purpose.

Byberry Mental Hospital, Philadelphia's House of Horrors

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