The Evolution of Mental Health Care: 200 years at Hartford HealthCare's Institute of Living

In recognition of the 200th anniversary of the Institute of Living (IOL) this year, Hartford HealthCare has partnered with the Connecticut Historical Society to present Common Struggle, Individual Experience: An Exhibition About Mental Health. 

This special podcast series will take us through the history of mental health treatment in Connecticut, and behind the scenes of the IOL, the first psychiatric hospital in the history of Connecticut and the third in the nation.

The IOL played a significant role in fundamentally changing approaches to mental health – blazing a trail of moral, ethical treatment for others to follow.

In episode one, Hartford HealthCare’s Steve Coates talks to the Connecticut Historical Society’s Director of Exhibitions Ben Gammell, and Research Historian Karen Li Miller about the exhibit which is now open at the Connecticut Historical Society.

Be sure to follow Hartford HealthCare on your favorite podcast platform where more episodes focusing on the IOL’s history, present and future will publish throughout the year.

Learn more about Hartford HealthCare's Institute of Living

Learn more about Common Struggle, Individual Experience: An Exhibition About Mental Health Presented by Hartford HealthCare Institute of Living

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_03 0:04

We find a lot of compassion among family members who are dealing with mental illness 200 years ago. It's not a new phenomenon. I think a lot of people who struggle with mental health feel like they're alone in many ways. And I think this is a way of sort of opening up the conversation and helping people realize they're not alone. There is a perception that people may have been cruel or condemning people with mental health conditions in the past, but it's not quite that obvious. It's a really mix as it is today of people really trying to understand what's going on and provide help as well.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Welcome to Hartford Healthcare's podcast series on the history of mental health care, including the 200th anniversary of the Institute of Living, or the IOL. These special episodes take us through the history of mental health treatment in Connecticut and behind the scenes of the IOL, the first psychiatric hospital in the history of Connecticut, and just the third in the nation. This is a journey of sorts from the dark world of early mental health treatment to the compassionate care available today and an even brighter future. The IOL played a significant role in fundamentally changing approaches to mental health, blazing a trail of moral, ethical treatment for others to follow. In episode one, Hartford Healthcare's Steve Coates talks to the Connecticut Historical Society's Director of Exhibitions, Ben Camill, and research historian Karen Lee Miller about the exhibit Common Struggle Individual Experience, which is presented by Hartford Healthcare as part of 200 Years at the IOL. Here's Steve Coates.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

The Connecticut Historical Society's Common Struggle Individual Experience, an exhibition about mental health, presented by Hartford Healthcare. The exhibit opened on November 12th, and it'll be open through October 15th of 2022. For Hartford Healthcare, we're very proud to support uh this important endeavor, especially with the history of the Institute of Living, which is celebrating its 200th year in 2022 and its historical role in the treatment of mental health through the years. Karen and Ben, thanks so much for joining me today without giving too much away. If people visit, what should they expect? Take us through a little bit of the exhibit.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Well, I think uh, you know, people might be surprised when they come to this exhibit because it contains a lot of history about mental health treatment in Connecticut, but it also uh really focuses a lot on people's stories today, uh people's personal experiences with mental health conditions, their personal struggles. Um, so it really connects to what people have gone through in recent times. So we we interviewed more than 20 people um for this exhibition just to get their personal thoughts and stories. And so this exhibit really weaves together uh a lot of contemporary content along with a historical look at how you've understood mental health throughout history.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

So if people walk through this exhibit, will they get the feeling that we've made some really good progress in treating mental illness over the years?

SPEAKER_03 3:16

Yeah, for sure. Um, you know, Karen, you can jump in too if you know with anything, but I would say we certainly do uh look at how things have improved over time. You know, we talk about Eli Todd's innovation with founding a Heartford Retreat for the Insane and his you know his uh approach to mental health treatment, trying to look at the patient with compassion and understanding. So we do have some examples of pretty horrendous treatment of uh people with mental health conditions. That said, we also we find um a lot of compassion among family members who are dealing with uh mental illness 200 years ago. Um we feature a woman in the late 1700s who died by suicide, and we have documents in our collection from her family members, and they're very you know worried, concerned, they're trying to do their best to help her through her struggles. So there is a perception that people may have been cruel or condemning people with mental health conditions in the past, but it's not, you know, it's not quite that obvious. It's it's a really mix as it is today of people really trying to understand what's going on and provide help as well.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

So as we look at mental illness, say like 200 years ago, there's some evidence based on uh this exhibit that people were aware of it as a medical condition.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Very much so, especially in medical texts. And that's what we mostly have access to personal letters, diaries, medical texts. And we don't find so much that idea of that that this is divine punishment or the result of malice or anything like that. It's mostly uh a take on uh mental illness as a physical condition, whether it is perhaps something wrong with the blood, the brain, the heart, etc. So we do see you know physiological um attributions for this.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

So, in many respects, some of the draconian treatments that we may have heard about, you know, 200 years ago, we were doing similar things for what they considered medical issues.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

In a variety of ways. For example, uh Dr. Benjamin Rush, who's also called the like father of American psychiatry, uh, he believed in he believed in compassionate care, but that also included uh urging, like bleeding people, uh, you know, to get the bad blood out and to even out one's physical composition. So there were a variety of um treatments. Uh most home treatments included things like uh change of scenery, traveling, getting fresh air, socializing, uh finding amusements like music or reading. So there were more diversions. There was no um actual uh pharmaceutical care, you know, no sort of drugs to help people uh who needed them.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

So certainly as we I guess emerge, begin to emerge from the pandemic, there's been more of a focus on mental health, on addiction simply because of the pandemic. And also over the years, there's been an increase in awareness about the stigma attached to mental illness. Why now for this exhibit?

SPEAKER_03 6:48

You know, it evolved over time as we were developing it and gathering stories and hearing from people. You know, we wanted to look at change over time, but as we sort of developed this exhibit, the goals that really came to the forefront were connecting people with others, showing that struggles with mental health is not a new thing. People have been dealing with this throughout history. So, in some ways, hearing those stories from the past and today, we felt like it was a really important way of showing people they're not alone, both today but also throughout time. It's not a new phenomenon. I think a lot of people who struggle with mental health feel like they're alone in many ways. And I think this is the way of sort of opening up the conversation and helping people realize they're not alone and hopefully making um it easier to have conversations about it. We heard a lot from people as we developed the exhibit. We asked people what do they want to what would they want to see in an exhibit? And those are some of the things that came up. Um, you know, there were specific pieces of content that people were interested in learning about. You know, a very common thread was this idea of opening up the conversation, normalizing it, reducing that stigma.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

And how do you physically put this exhibit together?

SPEAKER_03 8:08

We we did a lot of planning. We we held uh quite a number of planning groups and focus groups. We invited people to join us to hear from them about what they want to hear, see in the exhibit. So we talked with mental health professionals, with mental health scholars, community members that had personal experience with mental health conditions, or um as caregivers for people with mental health conditions. So we tried to really gather as much info as we could. And from that, we kind of developed this broad idea that I sort of alluded to of really mixing contemporary stories with historical stories.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Do you touch on substance abuse and addiction in the exhibit?

SPEAKER_03 8:52

It is touched upon. So there are historical documents that do mention substance use. We don't get into it in in depth, um, but it is certainly something that people talked about when we interviewed them as an important aspect of the exhibit. I I would say the major, the bigger themes that we really focus on would be sort of the change in treatment, establishment of institutions over time. But really, it's about the personal stories and struggles people talk about. Um, whether those were with our interviews we did, or we try to sort of piece stories together based on very limited numbers of documents from our collection. So we have, you know, maybe a letter from one person talking about the suicide of a loved one. We don't know much more about that story, but we can see from that one document a challenge and struggle someone went through that someone today might be able to relate to.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

In the video interviews I've watched from the exhibit, I was really struck by the real broad cross-section of people you have and how differently they view their illness and um mental illness in general.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

One thing about this exhibit is that we interview people that didn't necessarily agree on everything, even how to understand mental health or talk about it. So we do have conflicting viewpoints presented in the exhibit. I go through the exhibit and I do see improvement in treatment over time. I don't think it's just that one um linear track where it was terrible and now it's good. I think people have tried to deal with it in many ways throughout history. I think it's very, I think it'll be very hopeful. We have opportunities for visitors to leave feedback in the exhibit, and I'm really impressed by what people have written in their comments, just talking about their own response to the exhibit, wanting to really share their story, and sort of I feel this kind of an excitement of people who've gone through the exhibit that's already present.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

And I'll ask each of you as you put this together, were there any surprises for you?

SPEAKER_03 10:56

You know, one I guess one thing that surprised me was looking through some of the stories from the past is some of the people that we featured, I was somewhat familiar with just based on you know past research, other exhibits we've done, and the fact that you know these people might be known for something, or we have a letter from them, but I never made the connection that they might have mental health struggles until we really looked specifically into that theme. And all of a sudden it was like, oh, this person um clearly had struggled with mental health, and it's it's part of their life, and it might not have shown up in another context. Mental health affects so many people, and you might not notice it at first.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

I'm not sure it's so much surprising, but more of a fantastic uh learning experience and uh journey with people. Uh, we had community members just come forward to talk with us and share their experiences. One woman wants to talk about her experiences with electro-convulsive therapy uh at the IOL. And you know, she and her family are openly talking about their experiences as a family and how they've um encouraged communication and the dispelling of stereotypes and uh this promotion of being more accepting of various ways of treatment. You know, we've tried to include a diverse andor more inclusive array of voices. We've featured Pamere Health Advocates, which uh supports Cambodian immigrants, but also just uh members of uh Southeast Asian communities um across the US. And they've been operating for nearly for about 40 years in Connecticut. So there have been institutions and uh leaders who have been promoting uh mental wellness and healthcare strategies. We just get a glimpse of their processes and organizations in the exhibit.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Really some fascinating stuff. If people want to visit, what should they do?

SPEAKER_03 13:03

Um check our website, chs.org, just to make sure that uh we're open. But we are open Tuesday through Saturday, and we will in the spring uh be opening all weekend on this on Sundays as well. So first Saturday of the month is free admission, but check our website for any updates, chs.org.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Thank you both for your time today, and also thank you for putting this exhibit together and for expanding the conversation on mental health.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Thank you. Thank you. Steve Coates, Ben Gammel, and Karen Lee Miller. Check the links in this episode's notes to learn more about the Institute of Living and the Common Struggle Exhibition at the Connecticut Historical Society. Be sure to follow Hartford Healthcare on your favorite podcast platform where more episodes focusing on the IOL's history, present, and future will publish throughout the year. For Hartford Healthcare, I'm Enron DePierre. Thanks for listening.