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The Origin And Nature Of Our Institutional Models

From: Changing Patterns in Residential Services for the Mentally Retarded
Creator: Wolf Wolfensberger (author)
Date: January 10, 1969
Publisher: President's Committee on Mental Retardation, Washington, D.C.
Source: Available at selected libraries

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3. The depression stifled progress in the development of social services other than those considered essential to economic survival of the nation, and mental retardation services are generally given low priority even when times are good.

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4. World War II further diverted popular attention and concern. It is noteworthy that the "new look" in retardation began in about 1950 when there was prosperity and when war-related problems, such as demobilization, reintegration of veterans, and housing shortages, were finally being solved.

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Any "institution" (in the sociological sense) that has much momentum but no viable rationale is likely to strive for self-perpetuation on the basis of its previous rationales and practices. And this is what I believe to have happened to our institutions (in the conventional sense). But 40 years of not thinking about our institutional models, and of model muddle (Wilkins, 1965), is enough! Let us consider only the following aspects that the institutional movement of today shares with the past, although these aspects no longer have viable rationales:

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1. Large older institutions being further enlarged.

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2. New institutions designed to be large, i.e., for more than 600-1,000 residents.

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3. New institutions placed in inconvenient or remote locations.

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4. Perpetuation of the omnibus (rather than specialization) concept of institutional purpose.

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5. Uncritical and poorly rationalized intake practices; for instance, one need consider only the large number of young mongoloids from adequate families that are accepted, often in infancy or from birth.

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6. Continuation of dehumanization, despite the unprecedented move throughout the country toward increase in personal rights, equal protection under the law, distribution of affluence, better opportunities for the disadvantaged, etc. We see this concern expressed in civil rights laws, controversy over draft laws and the Vietnam war, definition of students' rights, reformulation of the rights of the accused, and the revision of the codes of ethics of many major professional societies. We are only beginning to see this concern extended to the retarded.

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The Realities of Institutional Accomplishments

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If we compare the rationales for institution building with the realities of institution accomplishments, we can see that few of the hoped-for aims have even been approximated; that none of the major rationale advanced for institution building and institution running has held up; and that virtually every novel concept in institutional care was perverted eventually.

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1. The schools became asylums, and small family residences became large regimented institutions. Most retardates placed in these institutions were not made nondeviant; to the contrary: placement more often resulted in systematic "dehabilitation" (Sharman, 1966) which accentuated deviancy. This was only to be expected since any agency designed for the keeping of large numbers of deviants can ill afford to tolerate non-deviance in its midst, as illustrated by an experience of Femald's: "I would like to ask the members of the Association what experience they have had in paying imbecile help. We have not done that very much, except in one or two cases. We had a very good driver who had been with us a few years; some suggested that we pay him ten cents a week; in the course of a month or two he thought he should have twenty-five cents, and so on to exorbitant ideas of his value, and such stretches of discipline and disobedience, that the only way to get him back to his tracks again was to put him back in the ranks" (Fernald in the discussion of Osborne, 1891, p. 181). "...The social integration of the subnormal...is never feasible if society does not permit the subnormal to reach this integration" (Speyer, 1963, p. 162), and the institution did "...not provide an accurate model of the society to which some of the retarded will eventually need to adjust" (Kirkland, 1967, p. 5).

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2. The institution became not a paradise but a purgatory, not a Garden of Eden but an agency of dehumanization; to this day, residents are subjected to physical and mental abuse, to neglect and inadequate care and services, to environmental deprivation, and to restriction of the most basic rights and dignities of a citizen.

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In 1886, Kerlin (p. 294) had a vision of what was to become the institution at Faribault, Minnesota: "...we turn most approvingly to Minnesota's noble offering for this charity. Located on the beautiful bluff on Straight River, Faribault, with a singularly attractive country adjacent, exciting the kindliest interest of an intelligent and warm-hearted community, and with every advantage of space, fertility of soil, and amplitude of water, we know of no institution in the United States so happily and wisely begun. In fact, like the noble state itself, this institution is only embarrassed by the richness of its opportunities." And how does Faribault of today compare with this earlier vision of it?

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Sonoma State Hospital in California was born in a similar vision: "The tract of land selected lies in the beautiful valley of Sonoma. It. . .embraces over 1,600 acres. It is watered by three living streams, two of which rise on the place and give us 100,000 gallons of water daily, at an elevation of 150 feet above the building site. There are over 50,000 fruit-trees on the place, besides acres of vines and hundreds of acres of pasturage. Two railroads pass through the land, and will give us stations on it. The climate is perfect, the situation picturesque, the location central; and, altogether, the trustees are jubilant, and feel that the millennium is at hand. There seems no reason why our Home should not be the equal of any institution in the land. We shall not be satisfied with any lesser glory" (Murdock, 1889, p. 316).

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