Published In:
Ann Arbor News, February 19, 1937
Caption:
Overcrowded Dormitory In State Hospital - This sleeping room at Ypsilanti State mental hospital was designed to give about 55 square feet of night space to each patient. But the 6-year-old institution is already so overloaded and has so many waiting to get in that accepted comfort and hygiene "standards" have to be abandoned temporarily under pressure of grim necessity. So this dormitory is jammed with as many beds as can be forced into it -- fully one-third more than should be there. This condition bas as it is, is far better than found in older hospitals with much less window space, much less artificial ventilation, much less pleasant and possibly less sanitary walls, ceilings, and floorings. Contrast this picture with the one below taken in an older institution.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, March 10, 1937
Caption:
Books A Hospital Helps - The library is a comfort and often a curative aid to many state hospital patients, particularly to those who retain a grasp on the normal things of life or who are on the way to recovery. Not all hospitals have such pleasant hospital quarters as those provided in the Ypsilanti State hospital, pictured above, but all strive to make their libraries attractive and seek to encourage their use by patients. No library is supplied with all the books it could employ to advantage.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, February 27, 1937
Caption:
Badminton Banishes Bad Dreams - Sports are included among curative means at state hospitals. Interest in them wins patients away from the fantasies of mental illness and helps to restore a normal relationship with real life. They are prescribed with a view to their beneficial effects on patients, just as medicines and treatments are prescribed in hospitals for physical ailments. This picture was taken in Ypsilanti State hospital gymnasium, the identity of patients being concealed through work of an artist who retouched it. This gymnasium is equipment desired in all hospitals, but lacking in most of them.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, February 27, 1937
Caption:
Busy Hands Distract Sick Minds - This is not a church "sewing circle," but a session of an occupational therapy class in a state hospital. Patients sew, knit, crochet, and do fancy work. They make many articles for their own use and for the use of others in the hospital. Occupation that diverts and stimulates the minds of patients is curative in its effects. The Curtains and ornaments of the room are the work of patients. Such work not only has a beneficial effect and helps while away the long hours of necessary hospitalization, but also furthers the productive ability of patients looking toward the time when they are sufficiently recovered to return to their homes and society.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, March 8, 1937
Caption:
Physical Therapy Helps - Following the ancient adage that sound bodies make sound minds attention is paid in Michigan state hospitals to building up the physical condition of patients. That is why gymnasia are desired equipment. Gymnastics, calisthenics, and games are included in the body-building programs where facilities and personnel are available.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, March 3, 1937
Caption:
Adequate Receiving Hospitals Mean Early Cures: All Michigan mental hospitals are seeking adequate receiving hospitals. Such departments where newly admitted patients may be studied and given the physical or psychiatric attention their conditions demand are essential aids in the curing of curable mental ailments -- and a large share of cases are curable. In a well equipped receiving hospital of ample size, a patient is given the intensive attention he or she might receive in a general hospital if suffering from organic trouble. Special efforts are made at correct diagnosis and prompt application of proper treatments. Most cures are effected in the months immediately after hospitalization, particularly when patients are brought in soon after their disorders become manifest. This room in a newer receiving ward among Michigan state hospitals is as cheering as a room in a general hospital might be. And the patient is apparently well on the way toward recovery. Note the type of window used in a modern mental hospital. Each of the individual steel sashes opens only a few inches.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, February 23, 1937
Caption:
Steps On Way Back To Normalcy - Left to themselves, sufferers from certain forms of mind illness reverse the usual form of mental development and go backward until they have less than the understanding of babes, less than the ability of babes to care for their needs. Through the curative effects of occupational therapy it has been found possible in many cases to arrest this deterioration, to turn the mental process around again toward the light and away from the dark. Patients sometimes have to start at the beginning, having their hands guided in simple tasks, as a child is guided. Note how the therapist in the picture is guiding the hand of the patient in a weaving operation. As the mental therapy treatment develops and as the patient becomes more interested, more awakened he may regain self confidence and recover productive ability to such an extent that he may be able to do useful work about the institution or return to society.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, February 23, 1937
Caption:
Dancing Is Mental Medicine - Sick minds seek alluring but unsafe refuge in miasmatic dream worlds. The great curative effort in all state hospitals is to draw them back to the world of reality by wholesome, normal interest. Recreational therapy uses various forms of diversions, entertainment, and play to attain this end. Here is a class at Ypsilanti State hospital employing dancing as a means of regaining mental health. Art work has concealed the identities of the patients.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, February 26, 1937
Caption:
Work Both Curative And Helpful - Tasks performed by patients in Michigan state hospitals have a double value -- primarily they are intended to benefit the patient and to help toward his recovery or to make his condition more "comfortable." In the second place they have, in many cases, a productive value, saving the state many thousands of dollars in the upkeep of the institutions. Here patients in the industrial department at Pontiac State hospital are engaged in caning chairs. Patients make rugs, curtains, table spreads, and various articles that help to make living rooms, dining rooms and dormitories more pleasant.