It’s so sad that the State owns the bodies....in their own way. The patients deserve to have their identity, and it’s not right that the state of New York to keep that from them. Thank you for doing what you can to help the patients be remembered.
I would go ahead and make funeral arrangements now, and that will guarantee everything you’d like to be done when you die.. I’m doing that. All anyone will have to do is make one call, and everything is set up, and paid for..
This woman is amazing. I read the book and it was so sad. People were treated so horribly. The stigma against mental illness is bad now and was 100x worse back then. A definite must read. I hope they get a memorial for the guy. :(
The New York State Office of Mental Health continues to deny descendants of patients access to any and all information that might help those living descendants to memorialize the lost. In many ways our ancestors remain "inmates of the asylum" - the State's refusal to grant access to specific records of interest to descendants is tragic. I personally worked as a mental health clinician for over twenty years, and as a former therapist, I know that our first mission was to keep families together or to reunite families whenever possible. By refusing family members access to information, the State Office is continuing to perpetuate the stigma of mental illness. These individuals were NOT "the mentally ill" - they were PERSONS with mental illness. Their illness did NOT define them. The State Office of Mental Health must end its practice, no matter how well intentioned, of continuing to define our ancestors within the context of their illness.
Bless You for your efforts. These precious souls had life on this earth and deserve to be memorialized properly. Im almost certain every being suffers at some point in life with an episode mental illness. Yes definitely some more severe and recognizable, but so many suffer in silence. The stigma needs to go!
i live in ovid and deliver food to willard a lot and pass the asylum on a daily basis, its so incrediby creepy to pass. i never knewabout the unmarked graves though, its insane to know to town i live in has this sort of things
I went to Willard State Hospital in the late 1970's with my psychopathology class from Cornell University in Ithaca. As part of the coursework, visited a nice lady there every week who had been committed to the facility. I will never forget it or her.
After 50 years, the information you seek is available to the public. Contact your US Senator to help you get the records. After 50 years, HPAA does not apply. Don't cry. Get political and get the records you seek.
This is 'Why', I write 'Dark Literature'. I personally believe. We are all caretakers, of one another, even after the last breaths released. Many times, their stories can't be captured, until the dirt settles and someone has to answer questions. And only through the darkness, shall we acknowledge, the light. For the 55,000 who were laid to an unsettled rest. There are over 57,000, that not only acknowledge their existence but mourn for their proprietors to give them the dignity in death, they weren't aware of in life. God rest, their souls.
The hospital should have had the foresight to realize that *maybe* it would behoove them to at least make the graves distinguishable in case there needed to be an exhumation. For example, putting an ID number on the patient's file and putting that ID number on the patient's grave would have still allowed for some semblance of privacy according to the state law while also making each grave easily matched to each patient if given access to patient files.
Liuhuayue Exhumed? I highly doubt they cared about ANY patient OR what happened to them while living, far less dead. Personally? I completely agree with you, but the humane treatment of the mentally ill was not a priority. Some of these documentaries will literally make you cry...There are no words for the inexcusable ways they treated those poor patients. So very sad
It's just camera exposure thing... back in the day to capture good image they had to have longer exposure, so if people didn't sit still it would result in those blurred contours.
People die, what's left is their mortal remains. After a person is dead, his/her body is just a carcass remained to be disposed off- all of us would be disposed off one day one way or the other. After death it doesn't matter to the dead if they are remembered by a living or not, as they are gone of this earth and are not coming back. However, It does matter to the living ones to hold on to their memory and remember their dead ones, I think this is what this is all about!
This documentary (short?) could, easily, be an hour long; and it should be to do justice to this subject and to the work that these people are trying to do. A(n apparently) much smaller "potter's field" is near me, in the "Far Northeast" of Philadelphia. It was a burial ground for Byberry Mental Hospital, a.k.a., Philadelphia State Hospital, a.k.a., Philadelphia Hospital for Mental Diseases, etc; opening in 1906 & in operation until 1990, it was a festering sewer of a place doing very little to actually give the patients within anything even resembling viable "treatment". The situation came to national attention between 1945 and 1946, when a conscientious objector took photos of the institution and the conditions inside while serving there as an orderly. Some three dozen black & white photos documenting issues including dozens of naked men huddling together with human excrement lining its hallways. The photos were shown to a number of people, including then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who subsequently pledged her support in pursuing national mental health reforms. In May 1946 those photos were published in an issue of Life Magazine, creating a national "mass uproar".
*I saw a documentary on YT about that place. It's absolutely sickening the way those people were treated. Sadly, YT has a lot of documentaries on Psychiatric Hospitals all around the world. They're all shocking but the ones in England & Ireland were some of the most horrific things I've ever seen.*
Maybe they didn't want to be identified. Mental illness was not something families were proud of back then, and privacy was a part of respect for the patients and families . What good could there be in identifying who these poor souls were now? Allow them to RIP and pray they are safe in the arms of their Lord and Savior.
@Judy Osborne *The good that would come from "identifying these poor souls" would be acknowledging a life lived & lost. They deserve the respect of being recognized as having once been a living, breathing human being w/ a name; Instead they were treated like a number. Don't treat them like a number in death.*
😥💐🌷🌺💧💝🍰 I am choosing to celebrate each one of your lives on this day every year. I will not let you go on being forgotten. You were and always will be very precious, not only to me and those in this story who are fighting for you, but by our God who never stops loving you... He welcomes each one of you home!😇
Want to spend the night on one of the nations largest former asylums and explore the grounds, including several cemeteries? Check out my rental on Central State Hospital campus in MIlledgeville Ga. www.airbnb.com/h/asylumhouse
Is not just for the peoples that have a history - some them can make great hings in one time! I remember when I see - (tic-tic folies - a movie that show the real tratment this places givem - AND CHANGE ALL - MAIBE A SECOND CHANGE ARE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This group of people are literally angels on earth ♡ May all of those buried at Willow find eternal peace.
It’s so sad that the State owns the bodies....in their own way. The patients deserve to have their identity, and it’s not right that the state of New York to keep that from them. Thank you for doing what you can to help the patients be remembered.
Absolutely true
I have a mental illness and when I am dead, I would like a headstone with my name on it.
same
I would go ahead and make funeral arrangements now, and that will guarantee everything you’d like to be done when you die.. I’m doing that. All anyone will have to do is make one call, and everything is set up, and paid for..
I kind of just want to disapear.
Must of the people at that asylum we’re not even insane they were sent because they did not fit in a broken messed up society
This woman is amazing. I read the book and it was so sad. People were treated so horribly. The stigma against mental illness is bad now and was 100x worse back then. A definite must read.
I hope they get a memorial for the guy. :(
The New York State Office of Mental Health continues to deny descendants of patients access to any and all information that might help those living descendants to memorialize the lost. In many ways our ancestors remain "inmates of the asylum" - the State's refusal to grant access to specific records of interest to descendants is tragic. I personally worked as a mental health clinician for over twenty years, and as a former therapist, I know that our first mission was to keep families together or to reunite families whenever possible. By refusing family members access to information, the State Office is continuing to perpetuate the stigma of mental illness. These individuals were NOT "the mentally ill" - they were PERSONS with mental illness. Their illness did NOT define them. The State Office of Mental Health must end its practice, no matter how well intentioned, of continuing to define our ancestors within the context of their illness.
God bless these people on the committee.
Had a cousin named John Curry Follett (1 DEC 1855 - 8 MAY 1906) who died there in 1906
Bless You for your efforts. These precious souls had life on this earth and deserve to be memorialized properly. Im almost certain every being suffers at some point in life with an episode mental illness. Yes definitely some more severe and recognizable, but so many suffer in silence. The stigma needs to go!
The woman who narrates this documentary is just amazing for the work she is doing. 🙌
A voice for the voiceless.
i live in ovid and deliver food to willard a lot and pass the asylum on a daily basis, its so incrediby creepy to pass. i never knewabout the unmarked graves though, its insane to know to town i live in has this sort of things
I went to Willard State Hospital in the late 1970's with my psychopathology class from Cornell University in Ithaca. As part of the coursework, visited a nice lady there every week who had been committed to the facility. I will never forget it or her.
I wish them success
But they would have to answer so many questions if they released the patients info. ..Sad story!
I wonder if they really know they didn’t care so why would they worry about the names
Thank you for doing this video. Its so sad. Theres s cemetery on my dads land. All the gravestones are ruined. That cemetery is from the 1800s
After 50 years, the information you seek is available to the public. Contact your US Senator to help you get the records. After 50 years, HPAA does not apply. Don't cry. Get political and get the records you seek.
Sad, but a good documentary
Just no
Very sad. Once again big government takes control.
Where can I watch the whole thing?
If a husband didn't want their wife anymore, because they had something else in mind. They could sign their wife over.
The scary thing is the wife may have been institutionalized for the wrong reasons.
That's horrible
I think family members should have access to there relatives graves by showing proof of relationship
We have to face it. Some relatives don’t want to be bothered in life and in death of some of these patients.
These poor souls were shunned in life and died nobodys... That's absolutely appalling, I hope they're all finally at peace 🕊️🕊️
I agree, except ...we are all....Nobodies...🤔
Bless them 🙏🏽❤
I need an update!
So sad. Aww
This is 'Why', I write 'Dark Literature'. I personally believe. We are all caretakers, of one another, even after the last breaths released. Many times, their stories can't be captured, until the dirt settles and someone has to answer questions. And only through the darkness, shall we acknowledge, the light. For the 55,000 who were laid to an unsettled rest. There are over 57,000, that not only acknowledge their existence but mourn for their proprietors to give them the dignity in death, they weren't aware of in life. God rest, their souls.
The hospital should have had the foresight to realize that *maybe* it would behoove them to at least make the graves distinguishable in case there needed to be an exhumation. For example, putting an ID number on the patient's file and putting that ID number on the patient's grave would have still allowed for some semblance of privacy according to the state law while also making each grave easily matched to each patient if given access to patient files.
Liuhuayue Exhumed? I highly doubt they cared about ANY patient OR what happened to them while living, far less dead. Personally? I completely agree with you, but the humane treatment of the mentally ill was not a priority. Some of these documentaries will literally make you cry...There are no words for the inexcusable ways they treated those poor patients. So very sad
Hindsight is 20/20. DX
They did, they still have them, they just wont (the state) release the information citing privacy law from 1927.
Very sad thank you for doing this video
God bless you
1:45 what is that in the back left
GHOST!
Dock angler123 omf
It's just camera exposure thing... back in the day to capture good image they had to have longer exposure, so if people didn't sit still it would result in those blurred contours.
bad photography
That’s so sad I’ve been to Willard before I used to live in Interlaken
Very sad!
Wonderful job. We are all part of earth other and should care about people who can't care for themselves God Bless
People die, what's left is their mortal remains. After a person is dead, his/her body is just a carcass remained to be disposed off- all of us would be disposed off one day one way or the other. After death it doesn't matter to the dead if they are remembered by a living or not, as they are gone of this earth and are not coming back. However, It does matter to the living ones to hold on to their memory and remember their dead ones, I think this is what this is all about!
This documentary (short?) could, easily, be an hour long; and it should be to do justice to this subject and to the work that these people are trying to do. A(n apparently) much smaller "potter's field" is near me, in the "Far Northeast" of Philadelphia. It was a burial ground for Byberry Mental Hospital, a.k.a., Philadelphia State Hospital, a.k.a., Philadelphia Hospital for Mental Diseases, etc; opening in 1906 & in operation until 1990, it was a festering sewer of a place doing very little to actually give the patients within anything even resembling viable "treatment".
The situation came to national attention between 1945 and 1946, when a conscientious objector took photos of the institution and the conditions inside while serving there as an orderly. Some three dozen black & white photos documenting issues including dozens of naked men huddling together with human excrement lining its hallways. The photos were shown to a number of people, including then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who subsequently pledged her support in pursuing national mental health reforms. In May 1946 those photos were published in an issue of Life Magazine, creating a national "mass uproar".
*I saw a documentary on YT about that place. It's absolutely sickening the way those people were treated. Sadly, YT has a lot of documentaries on Psychiatric Hospitals all around the world. They're all shocking but the ones in England & Ireland were some of the most horrific things I've ever seen.*
If j cry imma cry ur so sweet
I was born here in 1959......
Corpse rituals are not for the dead who no longer exist. They are to give the living an illusion of accomplishment and pretense of meaning.
I live near it
Kelly Clark we used to be best friends lmao
Very sad
What happened since then! It’s 2023. I never heard about this I visited ginger lakes once I wish I knew I would have gone to visit the cemetery
Wow
The book they lives they left behind was disappointing ..wish there was more about the patients .. The book wasn't quite what I expected
Maybe they didn't want to be identified. Mental illness was not something families were proud of back then, and privacy was a part of respect for the patients and families . What good could there be in identifying who these poor souls were now? Allow them to RIP and pray they are safe in the arms of their Lord and Savior.
@Judy Osborne
*The good that would come from "identifying these poor souls" would be acknowledging a life lived & lost. They deserve the respect of being recognized as having once been a living, breathing human being w/ a name; Instead they were treated like a number. Don't treat them like a number in death.*
😥💐🌷🌺💧💝🍰 I am choosing to celebrate each one of your lives on this day every year. I will not let you go on being forgotten. You were and always will be very precious, not only to me and those in this story who are fighting for you, but by our God who never stops loving you... He welcomes each one of you home!😇
@Karan: _"...our God who never stops loving you..."_
Keep that `voodoo` to yourself, Dumbledore!
Bless "Nelly Bly"
THE HOMELESS WHO GOT PICKED ON
Wow people just got numbers not names not right
The woman in the beginning has pupils that blinkes.
He he:-) you saw it to. Takes and awake mind to do that. Ho are you? :-) From Usa?
Ragnarok you are the same person
Want to spend the night on one of the nations largest former asylums and explore the grounds, including several cemeteries? Check out my rental on Central State Hospital campus in MIlledgeville Ga. www.airbnb.com/h/asylumhouse
Worry for the living, not for the dead.
The living could use your misplaced devotion!
What if the deceased were cremated, would you chase after their ashes in the wind?
What an ignorant comment
❤️🩹
Is not just for the peoples that have a history - some them can make great hings in one time! I remember when I see - (tic-tic folies - a movie that show the real tratment this places givem - AND CHANGE ALL - MAIBE A SECOND CHANGE ARE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
+Antonio Arruda Titicut Follies 1967
Psychiatric patients need Jesus.
People who believe in mythical beings need psychiatric care.