In years past, before advances in modern treatment, people went to mental health facilities for a variety of reasons – and many stayed for life. Deemed untreatable by family and society, they lived – and died – in these facilities.
Although considered “forgotten” souls in life, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services is determined to make sure they aren’t forgotten in death.
On Friday morning, the agency’s Griffin Memorial Hospital staff placed Independence Day flags at the graves of approximately 500 former residents of the Norman residential mental health hospital. The graves were located at the Central State Hospital Rock Creek Road Cemetery, 12th Ave. N.E. and Rock Creek Road, established in 1933.
Flags also were placed at a nearby memorial site recognizing 40 boys and young men who lost their lives in a 1918 fire that spread throughout a residential ward at the hospital. It was one of the deadliest fires in Oklahoma history.
Because of the stigma associated with mental illness at the time, of the 40 who died in the fire, only one was claimed by family to be buried in a family cemetery. The other 39 were buried in individual pine boxes and hastily laid to rest in a large space in the general area of the memorial.
In 1918, Central State Hospital – as it was then called – had more than 1,000 patients. By 1944, the facility held more than 10,000 people.
“With advances in treatment, we have gone from thousands of patients living decades of their lives in facilities to thousands being treated on an outpatient basis, in their own communities while holding down jobs and maintaining their everyday lives,” said Dr. Henry Hartsell, GMH executive director.
“Every person’s life has value and meaning,” he said. “Today, these people would have received a far different type of treatment and gone on to live much different lives. These flags commemorate their presence on this earth, and remind us they were here and will never be forgotten.”
