Eric Cordingley of Portland emailed a very interesting article from the Oregonian about Morningside Hospital. Written in 1964, the article spotlighted Morningside as an example of new approaches to institutional care.

I was surprised by a number of things in the article:

• Morningside was the largest private psychiatric hospital if the West Coast
•  135 Alaskans, many of whom were Alaska Natives, were still patients
• Nearly a third of the patients were children, most of whom were developmentally disabled

The treatment philosophy (therapeutic community) described in the article is rather forward-thinking for 1964. The article noted that Morningside looked more like a farm than a hospital, there were no uniforms for the patients or staff, patients were encouraged to participate in education/work and recreation, and the goal for most patients was self-sufficiency and discharge.

You can read the whole article here: [Download not found]