During the earliest period of the Brainerd State School and Hospital here, June of 1958 through December of 1959, there were no more than 90 residents at any time, served by 65 employees. The number of patients has grown to over 1,521; the employees to over 800.
In the beginning, nearly all of the residents to what was then the Brainerd State School and Hospital were from Cambridge State School and Hospital. The official name change to Brainerd State Hospital was made in 19l7.
The month of October, 1965, saw the largest number of patients in residence. There were 1,330 patients with 230 employees. The institution had to train all of its own psychiatric technicians with Miss Mabyl K. Johnston, R. N., who had her master of arts degree in nursing education, taking the responsibility for this training. Until her retirement in 1970, she trained 34 classes of psychiatric technicians.
The number of residents transferred to Brainerd during 1961-1965 was dependent upon the growth of the building program. This program came to an end in 1965 with the completion of the School and Rehabilitation Therapies Building through appropriation by the State Legislatures of 1957, '59, '61 and '63.
The state invested $18,000,000 in buildings at Brainerd. These included: the Administration- Hospital Building costing $2,340,000; the Service Building costing $3,164,000, and a total of 11 patient buildings. Two of these cost $997,500 each; the remainder approximately $750,000 each.
The construction also included a water pumping station, a water tank and tower, a sanitary sewer pumping station, as well as all of the grading, street lighting, landscaping, tunnels and utility distribution systems, sanitary sewer system, storm water drainage system, water distribution, seven-acre playfield, roads and parking areas, and finally the School and Rehabilitation Therapies Building which cost $1,170,000.
This period of very rapid growth was a time in which a building was no sooner completed than, it was filled with patients who were brought in from the institutions at Cambridge and Faribault by the school bus load. It was a period requiring' a great deal of coordinating of services in the care of patients. It was also a period in which large strides in the development of good programs for the training and special education of residents could not be accomplished for the simple reason that there was not enough people to do the work. It was a time in which there was emphasis' upon the need of custodial care of patients and it was a time when there was probably justification of complaint regarding care of, mentally retarded persons in state institutions.
This however, was changed. Under the leadership of Richard Bartman, M.D., director of the Child Mental Health Services of the Department of Public Welfare, a change of far reaching importance began to take place in Minnesota institutions for the mentally retarded in 1965. Holding a number of meetings with the medical directors and administrators of the three institutions for the retarded at Faribault, Cambridge and Brainerd, Dr. Bartman developed a system of six groups for the mentally retarded.
It became the job of the medical directors to determine the groupings to which each resident belonged. It further became a principle that, as far as possible, each group of patients should live in the same building or in buildings as closely related as possible, geographically.
In a two-week period in June, 1966, 1,250 residents at Brainerd State Hospital were moved from one building to another. This movement of patients took place at a time when there were still not enough employees, but was accomplished with the help of volunteers. The movement was a complex operation, since not only must residents be moved but the moves were in a simultaneous exchange of space system. All clothing of patients had to be re-marked and transferred, all special dietary information 'and all medical records had to be transferred along with any special advice that could be given by one Psychiatric Technician to another.
It was on the basis of these groupings and with new geographic location within the institution that effective programs of training and special education of residents started in February. 1967.
Under the leadership of Dr. David J. Vail, medical director of the Division of Medical Services, Department of Public Welfare, and Ardo Wrobel, director of mental retardation programs, Medical Services division, Department of Public Welfare, the unit system for development of programs of training and special education of the retarded in the institutions has rapidly improved.
Under the unit system, nursing services, all forms of re-habilitation services, special education and psychology are provided so that each program can be furnished a broad spectrum of services. The organization of patient care training and spe- cial education is cross-sectionalized and functional rather than in accord with older ideas of separate, compartmentalized departments.
Under the leadership of Robert Bader, institution programs coordinator, and the four unit directors there has been effective progress.
The Minnesota Learning Center was established in July, 1970, with the closing down of Owatonna State School. The Center, under the leadership of Warren Bock, program director, deals with educable retarded children with emotional problems which make it difficult for them to get along at home or in their community. This program serves all 87 counties of Minnesota and has 62 personnel assigned to it. There is a set limit of 85 students in this program.
For most of its history, Brainerd State Hospital has served the 28 counties which constitute the northern half of Minnesota. Recently, under the movement toward regionalization and smaller receiving districts of institutions, residents on one or two of the programs have been transferred to Fergus Falls State Hospital if they came from the receiving district of Fergus Falls. Similarly, a smaller number have been transferred to Moose Lake State Hospital.
It is anticipated that there will be a continuation of this movement as soon as it is possible for Fergus Falls State Hospital and Moose Lake State Hospital to develop equivalent programs of training for other groups of retarded residents. At this point, Brainerd State Hospital has six different programs for the retarded, combined under four Unit directors, whereas five various state institutions for the mentally ill have thus far developed only one or two of these programs for the retarded. Cambridge State Hospital and Fergus Falls State Hospital also have six programs.
After the middle of January, 1971, Brainerd State Hospital became the first state institution for the mentally retarded to develop multi-services which now include programs for the mentally ill and inebriates. This program is headed by Mary Ann Braaten. M.D. Psychiatrist.
These programs are based upon residents coming to Brainerd State Hospital from the four counties of Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd and Wadena. It is probable that some time this coming fall there will be an expansion of the program to include new residents from the six counties to the north, running up to International Falls.
At the present time, there are approximately 45 mentally ill and 28 inebriates in these new programs. As Brainerd develops these programs, Fergus Falls State Hospital will no longer serve the Brainerd receiving area of the 10 middle northern counties.
Along with other institutions, Brainerd State Hospital anticipates a gradual reduction in number of patients for a long time to come. It is possible that other programs may be gradually introduced into the organization, but these have not been determined as yet.
Reduction in numbers of residents of all kinds are the result of greatly improved programs of training, the increase of community facilities throughout Minnesota, the development of more accepting attitudes on the part of the public toward both the mentally ill, inebriates and mentally retarded, and the use of certain kinds of drugs which make residents more amenable to the care of professionals and paraprofessional personnel.
As of March 1971, there are 687 employee positions authorized through state legislative appropriation at the hospital. In addition, there are 29 full-time employees in three special federal grant programs. There are 16 employees paid through the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation connected with the State Department of Education. The function of this group is to guide the most promising mentally retarded residents into jobs within the state, and in this work they have been very successful.
Other auxiliary services include 38 Foster Grandparents. 17 Minne-Cep workers, six Neighborhood Youth Corps Workers and 16 Work-Study students from the Junior College. This totals some 812 persons employed full or part time, especially in the summer period.
