Page 25 - Delaware Medical Journal - December 2016
P. 25
HISTORY OF MEDICINE
of many children in Delaware City at the Governor Bacon Health Center where we have about 200 maladjusted children under treatment. But besides these conditions I would like
to express a personal opinion – in 45 years of the practice of psychiatry I have always wondered whether the day would come when we would create a closer relationship between medicine
as a whole and psychiatry as an isolated branch of medicine. I think the day has come. We have opened avenues for a proper approach to practicing psychiatry in the full sense and not in a segmental way.
must not be considered as miracle drugs, but as drugs that will give us an opportunity to open avenues of real psychotherapy for these persons who are in need of adjustment, who have been misdirected by their delusional impulses and experience in
the sense that they have created their own world of existence. Through this method the psychiatrist will have better opportunity to exercise psychotherapy not only in hospitals, but also in outpatient services.
long time.”
was a place he wanted to visit, he asked to see Delaware State Hospital since he had heard so much about it. And he came.
I was there. He gave a speech at the Academy of Medicine Building to a standing-room-only audience. He told the staff at Delaware State Hospital was on the map. At that time, the ratio of staff to patients was 1:2. It was the only mental hospital in
the state, and new programs were introduced rapidly, including psychiatric nurses making home visits, emergency walk-in clinics, and night appointments for patients able to hold jobs, all proving that admissions could be reduced.
A few years later, Dr. Tarumianz retired. There was a large retirement party in the Delaware Senate. The Board of Trustees for the State Hospital were prominent Delawareans; many
now have their names on buildings. In my opinion, he was the greatest administrator-doctor ever.
After the pharmaceutical reform started by Thorazine, many medications became available and hospital psychiatric units
grew. Local medical hospitals included psychiatric units. Two private psychiatric hospitals, Rockford Center and MeadowWood, opened.
During these years out-patient therapists also were gradually increasing year by year. The state employed psychiatrists, and their private sector colleagues came together to establish the Delaware Psychiatric Society in 1953. Albert Ingram, Jr., MD continues today and is continuing to grow in membership and activities. The energetic Dr. George DeCherney, who had been a psychiatrist and director at the Delaware State Hospital before his fellow psychiatrists to attend the meetings.
Anstreicher, the hospital assistant superintendent, and Mr. Charles Debnam, an activity therapist, worked together to complete desegregation, and there were no problems.
School, discussed the idea of Delaware State Hospital partnering with Jefferson to teach psychiatry to medical students. Had changed, both physicians left their respective positions, and Delaware State Hospital gradually lost status.
Things are far better than just a few years ago, but
more than 50 percent of inmates in prisons are mentally ill. That is not just a Delaware problem, but a national tragedy. Although unbelievable progress has been made toward psychiatry gaining respect and recognition, psychiatrists must continue the work of providing the absolute best care for our patients to maintain that respect.
■ AYDIN Z. BILL, MD is a retired Delaware Psychiatrist who began his career just as Thorazine was becoming available.
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Del Med J | December 2016 | Vol. 88 | No. 12
377
