There were a variety of medical facilities and services that were provided at the Lanterman Developmental Center. It was used as an emergency medical facility, and a number of patients lived on site because they had developmental difficulties. Before being used as a development center it was used as a narcotics hospital. In an article written for the Sacramento Bee, an employee describes the patients at the Lanterman Developmental Center as “adults acting 2 to 6 years old.” He continues on in the article saying he worked with patients that had conditions such as epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and Autism. These are all difficult conditions that the average parent would not have known how to handle during the early days of the facility.