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My grandmother was a patient and even died while at Dorthea Dix. The facilities were a god send to our family at the
My grandmother also was a patient at Dix. My mom's family moved to Raleigh from Elizabeth City in the 30's so that she could get the treatment she needed. I think it's a shame they're closing the doors at Dix for good.
Please forgive me for my lack of knowledge. Does this mean that there will no longer be any inpatient facilities in Raleigh that will be able to "take" patients that cannot afford private care?
Have you ever been in Butner? I am not sure if it has changed since my college days, but I had to go there and lead a group for a psych class. The group was fine, but what I saw while at Butner still brings haunting images and heebies. Lost souls on beds (maybe guerny rather than bed, was hard to tell difference) in the hallways, talking to no one, seeing visions that only they could see. I had never looked into someone's eyes and seen a vacuum until I went to Butner. Sorry to be a bummer, hope it has improved over the years. The staff was very nice and accommodating; there were just a lot of folks who were completely lacking functional capacity there and that was hard to see. It was a a harsh realization for the younger-more idealistic me- that sometimes you can't fix it, you just have to do the best you can to maintain and make them comfortable. I hope the folks at DD can be relocated successfully.
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Originally Posted by MrBojangles
How is it a step backwards when we have Butner facility that will take over?
This is heartbreaking. Like I said, I hadn't really been following the story closely, I just kept hearing that it was going to be closing "soon", and that community-based something-or-other was going to "take over". It seems like it's not going to work that way at all. I really wish there was a way for the hospital to remain open.
The new Central Hospital facility in Butner is only two years old. I haven't seen any of the older facilities that Raleigh27612 was referencing, unless maybe it was one of the federal facilities up there? It is sad overall about the lack of funding and public support for mental health facilities. There's the private facility off Sunnybrook road that will take public patients, but it fills up fast. The state is building a new hospital to replace Cherry Hospital and its multiple outbuildings. Hopefully that will provide a much better facility for patients in that region.
As a former employee of Dix, it saddens me to see it close. I was very proud to be part of the team that helped the patients that are so often forgotten by the community. Patients are routinely stuck in ER's as they wait for a bed in a hospital and staff are not prepared for working with their needs. The new hospitals have lost many of their most trained and dedicated staff due to the distance, including myself.
As far as the argument that the facilities were outdated and dangerous..... I went by by the two building that I used to work at and one has already been repainted,updated, and converted to state offices and the other one will be redone to become the site of the NC State Early College High School. Why couldn't they have done the same for the children with mental illness? Many of the children had families that required public transportation to come see them while they were hospitalized. Can you imagine trying to get public transportation to Butner or Goldsboro to visit your sick child?
The new Central Hospital facility in Butner is only two years old. I haven't seen any of the older facilities that Raleigh27612 was referencing, unless maybe it was one of the federal facilities up there? It is sad overall about the lack of funding and public support for mental health facilities. There's the private facility off Sunnybrook road that will take public patients, but it fills up fast. The state is building a new hospital to replace Cherry Hospital and its multiple outbuildings. Hopefully that will provide a much better facility for patients in that region.
My experience was...oh my, 1988. Ouch. Much has probably changed since then, I hope.
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