| Children
Crowded in Mental Center |
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| Letchworth Village, the largest state institution for care of the mentally defective, is so overcrowded that 500 children are sleeping on mattresses because there is no room for beds, Dr. Harry C. Storrs, senior director of Letchworth, said yesterday. “We could get the beds from the state but we just haven’t got the room for them,” the director said. He was interviewed at the annual fund-raising luncheon of the Welfare League for Retarded Children, Inc., of Letchworth Village, held at the Astor Hotel and attended by 1,000 parents, relatives and friends. The children at Letchworth, which is also the state’s model institution or care and treatment of the mentally defective, have been sleeping on mattresses, one next the other on the floors of halls and dayroom, for at least two to three years, said Dr. Storrs. The institution is one-third overcrowded. Dr. Storrs said the certified capacity is 3,178, and the present capacity is 4,460, a total of 1,282 over what it should handle.
Transfers to Willowbrook Last week thirty-three children under the age of 5 were transferred to the Willowbrook State School, on Staten Island, the former Halloran Hospital, which the state originally built as an institution. Willowbrook, however, cannot accept many children, for it is handicapped by a shortage of personnel, as State Mental Hygiene Commissioner Frederick MacCurdy has pointed out. Dr Storrs said that Letchworth “allowed itself to become overcrowded only because we though the Army would give us back Halloran much sooner and thus would take care of overcrowding.” Asked how he managed to fee all the children, he replied, “They feed in relays in some of the buildings.” The attendant problem at Letchworth- which is at Thiells, Rockland County- acute during the war, has “practically” disappeared, he said, adding, “We have a few vacancies left.” The luncheon’s sponsoring organization, a non-sectarian group interested in the welfare of the children at the Village, is seeking to raise funds for medical research. David N. Fields, executive director of the Association for the Improvement of Mental Hospitals, who attended the luncheon, criticized the State Department of Mental Hygiene for not providing the funds for this research. “It is the state’s function, not the parent’s job, to pay for research,” he said. |
Research Program Saul Fliederbaum, an officer of the league, explained that the medical research program benefits not only the children now in institutions but may help to prevent mental defectiveness in others. He cited, for instance, the study going on in the relationship of mental defectiveness to the RH blood factor. “Our program may bring
knowledge for prevention, and our children, or our neighbor’s
child, or the child yet to be born, may benefit from this work,”
he said. Dr. Storrs thanked the league also for the work it had done during the year in bringing entertainment to the children, in distributing candy and cookies and donating clothing and toys. “Their aim has been to do anything which would aid in bringing happiness to the children,” he said. “Their help and generosity is very much appreciated.” |
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