According to NJ.com, an agreement has been reached by New Jersey lawmakers that will allow the Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital in Lebanon Township to remain open for at least one additional year. The state facility was originally slated to be closed in June 2011, as a result of $7.6 million in proposed budget cuts from the Department of Human Services budget.
Initially built 100 years ago as a facility to treat patients with tuberculosis, the 288 bed hospital is one of five remaining state psychiatric hospitals. Hagedorn specializes in treating geriatric psychiatric cases. The hospital services patients ages 18 and older and provides 24 hour, comprehensive psychiatric services to patients who often have a long history of failed hospitalizations and outpatient treatment.
The budget compromise comes as a relief to the employees, families, law makers and advocates who have been protesting the close of the hospital since it was first proposed. The past closing of state psychiatric facilities resulted in overcrowding, increased violence and a shortage of available beds according to protesters.
Comments
I don't know what we would do if Kerrville State Hospital closed... where would mentally ill patients needing critical stabilization go?
I worked for 14 years in the largest psychiatric hospital in Chicago -- it was originally called Chicago State Hospital, aka the "Snake pit." It housed some 5000 patients in its day. The state of IL decided to begin discharging them and treating them in the community with drugs. Now so many of these individuals are homeless-walking the streets still in need of help.
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