As everyone in Raleigh knows, the late Dorothea Dix (April 1802 - July 1887), had a vision for a property to serve the 'indigent' insane. Through a vigorous program of lobbying elected officials, she created the first generation of American mental asylums.
In Raleigh, care of mentally ill patients was authorized and the hospital opened in 1856.
At some time, brilliant minds in the State of North Carolina decided that this population of people could be better served in Butner, NC. Butner is also the sight of a federal penitentiary.
We should expand the vision of serving the mentally challenged by embracing them - not shipping them off. We further should understand they deserve more than just a hospital bed.
When former President Ronald Reagan bravely announced that he had begun suffering the effects of Alzheimer's, he was applauded. That marked the period until his death as being, "the long goodbye". All of us know someone close who has succumbed to Alzheimer's or dementia.
We also know of children and adults who find themselves beset with OCD - obsessive compulsive disorder. A late friend's only child (age 24) found himself washing hundreds of times a day and standing in a corner as he felt that everything around him was dirty. He spent 30 days at Dix and, because no other property was available, was put in a nursing home with a roommate 80+ years old.
He would only eat if his mother brought his meals. After several months, he was able to leave and fully function on his own. Regretfully, the toll on his mother and her own newly developed illness, caused her to die not long after. I miss her still today.
We have an extraordinary opportunity to honor the wishes of Ms. Dorothea Dix and uniting people with mental challenges with an array of services. This could include transitional housing, a home for disabled veterans, training and education, hospice and others.
We can embrace the vision. But it takes guts.
Nancy McFarlane's latest political mailing cites her "Leadership Works for Raleigh" including "signed a lease to establish Dorothea DIx Park." She envisions a "revitalized" (meaning gentrified) South Raleigh, with public housing squeezed out to make room for condos surrounding the Dix Park.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much acreage in the Dix campus that there is room for a park as well as space for services for the mentally ill for whom the land was originally dedicated. It would be a travesty to continue to see homeless people living under bridges while the new gentry take over that land.