Daily Life at Lanterman
In 1945, Dr. Anna M. Shotwell, from the Pacific State Hospital, located in what was at that time Spadra, California, wrote a letter to the "Superintendent" of the "State Hospital for Mental Defectives" located in Faribault, Minnesota. In the letter, Dr. Shotwell inquires about information on patient dances. She explains that the Pacific State Hospital housed about "1600 epileptic and/or feebleminded" patients, and that she is interested in gathering information particularly concerning "(1) Number of dances per week or month; (2) length of dance for one evening; (3) type of music provided; (4) type of patients attending; [and] (5) the way in which patients select partners."
This letter does more than provide a list of questions once asked by Dr. Shotwell: it sheds light on the daily life of both patients and staff. The fact that Dr. Shotwell inquired about obtaining information regarding hosting a dance at the Pacific State Hospital shows that staff at the hospital were not merely just doctors and nurses treating patients’ physical needs. They were also concerned caretakers, hoping to provide a glimpse of normalcy for their 1600 patients. Considering in 1945 there was still very understanding about developmental disabilities and treatment options, Dr. Shotwell's inquiry is perhaps surprising. However, Dr. Shotwell's letter also brings to light the ignorance of the time period in terms of a lack of understanding about mental disabilities. This is particularly reflected in her use of the term "feebleminded." “Feebleminded” was used as a blanket term to describe individuals with a wide range of developmental and mental disabilities. In the 1940s there was not yet an individual diagnosis for these patients. For example, patients with Down’s Syndrome and those with autism might both have been classified as "feebleminded."[1]
Lorraine Osborn moved to Pomona, California in 1956. While in Pomona, she raised a family of four children, all of which attended schools within Pomona. In 1962 she was hired to work at Pacific State Hospital. She describes it as "a hospital for the mentally retarded." Osborn explains that in the beginning of her career at Pacific State Hospital it was run very much like a typical hospital, it included "wards, ward charges, patients, and nursing staff." She goes on to explain that the nursing staff "were required to wear all white uniforms" and that the female nurses were required to wear "white nurses’ hats." Osborn notes that eventually the hospital was renamed "Lanterman Development Center," and that the "wards became units, and there were unit managers. Patients became residents, and the nursing staff went to street clothes." She describes the Lanterman Development Center as being a "self-sufficient town" complete with "its own fire department, security, maintenance department, laundry, and complete food service department" as well as resident and staff housing, a recreation center, a pool, and a camping area called "Rustic Camp". Osborn recalls that she was eventually promoted, and retired in 1985 for a total of twenty-three years of service to the Pacific State Hospital and the Lanterman Development Center. [2]
One resident lived at the Lanterman Development Center for thirty years. In an interview with his sister, the Los Angeles Times reported that "His favorite moments on the campus were in the nine-acre Rustic Camp, she said, where he could play with birds in the aviary or pet the horses in the small zoo. Her brother also loved running under the sprinklers, dangling from telephone poles and buying coffee at the canteen with money he earned through his campus job folding laundry." While there is not very much information about the residents and their daily life, this interview shows that the residents at Lanterman Developmental Center were not merely patients receiving treatment, but residents and neighbors to one another. While there, they had jobs, friends, and enjoyed hobbies. [3]
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2008 on the possible discharge of another resident at the Lanterman Developmental Center. In the report, it explained that this particular patient’s mother had placed him in the care of the then State Hospital when he reached the age of twenty. She had raised and cared for her son at home up until this time. The article described the Lanterman Developmental Center as a safe place where trained professionals provided the care the patient needed. The report went on to describe this patient’s daily life. "He sleeps in a dorm-like room with two other men, spends much of his day in group activities and eats well-rounded meals that have been approved by nutritionists…his simple needs always met," a reporter noted. "Caregivers roam about the day room, playing guitar and singing long-ago songs like the Beatles ’Yellow Submarine.’ [He] has not lived in the outside world since the song was a radio favorite. Some of the attendants know [him] so well they understand the gentle gestures, such as a hand on the shoulder, that work best to move him peacefully from one place to the next. And when he strays from the group, as he likes to do, the wide open space and slow moving cars allow him to walk unharmed." "At lunch, one of his usual attendants quietly separates him from the rest of the group so that he can sit at a table alone with soft foods. No risk of fighting over food that way."[4]
[1] Anna M. Shotwell, Ph.D. to Superintendent of the State Hospital for the Mental Defectives, Faribault, Minnesota, sent March 12, 1945.
[2] Loarraine Osborne, Memories of Pacific State Hospital by Lorraine Osborne. 2010. Youtube. Accessed 9 November 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWkPqj3qJX0&t=286s
[3] Anderson, Tre' Vell. "An Era comes to an end as Pomona's Lanterman Center for disabled closes". Los Angeles Times (December 17, 2014). Accessed November 7, 2016.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lanterman-20141218-story.html.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lanterman-20141218-story.html.
[4] Therolf, Garrett. "Finding a Place for the states severely mentally disabled" Los Angeles Times (March 6, 2008). Accessed November 7, 2016.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-lanterman6mar06-story.html
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-lanterman6mar06-story.html