Searching for 1980's Golden Valley MN Psychiatric Patients (Anoka, Williams: apartments, insurance)

[Sammy Williams]

Golden Valley Medical Center has a stand alone Psychiatric Hospital, separate from the medical center. This psychiatric hospital had (still has?) adolescent treatment units ATP1, ATP 2, PICU, etc... and was more a residential treatment facility placement than a traditional hospitalization. The average stay in one of these units was anywhere between 6 months to two years. I am one of these patients that survived this institution's philosophies regarding how to care for a teen with emotional problems and/or chemical dependency during the 1980's. The care received in this institution during the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's is an ongoing source of trauma, emotional pain and suffering. I have memories of "The Lounge Program" as well as other treatments such as being locked up for long period of time in seclusion rooms with nothing (not even a bed or mattress to sleep on), staff sitting on me while being rolled in mats, frequent injections of drugs to sedate me because I was an angry girl, manipulative, emotional, verbal abuse, and the worst of them all, being put on "The Earn All Program".

Are there other people out there, now in adulthood, that were also patients of this institution, and recall these, and other forms of, inhumane treatments administered to adolescence entrusted to Golden Valley's care? I am looking for other patients who received care from this "hospital" or parents who mistakenly entrusted their children to this program. I need to know if I am the only one traumatized by these experiences and treatments I received as a patient at Golden Valley and to find out how prevalent this mistreatment was during this time period, or thereafter. Just as important, is Golden Valley Medical Center's Psychiatric Hospital still utilizing the same treatment methods they used on me and my cohorts?


I know there are others out there because I REMEMBER YOU and witnessed some of the things done to you, but do YOU remember? Please know and be assured that its okay to admit you were a victim of psychiatric institutional care and to open discuss your story.

[Kayekaye]

No you are not the only one that was traumatized by this kind of treatment. Both my sister and my best friend spent time there and have the same stories. My sister never recovered and is in the depths of Paranoid Schizophrenia, which may or may not have happened but certainly wasn't helped by their programs. My best friend was put their by her Mom as a teenager. She had a spiritual awakening years after leaving there and has turned her life around and is very successful. She still has many stories about the same treatment you described.

They both were in Anoka State hospital as well and it was even worse including sexual abuse.

It truly was the "Snake Pit" without any happy ending.

[Nealeykidsmom]

I typed a long message then I had to register & my message was gone. Was the facility at 4101 Golden Valley Road? If so, I will retype my message.

[Sammy Williams]

Yes, this is the one and the same facility I am speaking of.

Please do rewrite your story and information. I would like and need to hear your experiences and knowledge of that place, they are ghosts from my past.

[Nealeykidsmom]

This information may not be helpful or some parts may not be accurate but I was a traveling nurse in my 20's around 1995 and went to work for 8 weeks at THC in Golden Valley, MN. THC was next to a building that we were told was a psychiatric facility that was closed down. We were able to go to the empty building to use the washer and dryer. We were told that the psychiatric hospital doors were just locked one day with a sign on the door stating they were closed. Inside the building, that is exactly what it looked like. There were desks with coffee cups with coffee in them. There were medication carts with medications in them. It looked like they left one day after work or during work and never came back. The other thing I found strange is that they housed the nurses in a house within walking distance to THC and the psychiatric building. Normally as a traveling nurse, we are put in apartments. This time it was a huge brick house. It was me and three male nurses. The creepy thing about the house is that downstairs there were several rooms with one way glass. If you were in one of those rooms, you could not see out, but others could see in. We were told it was the home of the psychiatric physician who worked at the psychiatric facility, but he would bring some of the patients to his home for treatment. It was all very odd and creepy and I was happy to leave when my 8 weeks were up. I have always wondered what the "real" story of what happened in that facility and house but I am sure I will never know. So that's the information I have.

[Sammy Williams]

Thank you for your post and the information thereof. It sent chills down my spine and my stomach churned as I read it. At the same time, it is some relief to know the facility is not currently operating, or if they are, it's under different circumstances. As creepy as the abandonment of the facility appears, it also is not too shocking, given what they were doing to the patients under their care. It was a true and living nightmare to have spent my adolescence, or half of it, at this torture chamber. It's some relief that somehow the word got out what was being done to the children living there because I can say for quite certain, it would not have been closed for financial reasons. It was considered a hospital for the middle and upper class of society, and patients were there on private insurances as well as private pay. Some of the peers housed with me came from very wealthy homes, from all over the United States. Even I was not from Minnesota, and was flown on an airplane and picked up at the airport by the hospital's own airport shuttle. Most of the other kids there were from all over the country, and I actually remember nobody who was from the local area. It was a big deal when a kid had their families visit, because they came from far away to do so. More so, the kids were usually like me, in that once admitted there, I never saw any member of my family again, until the day they came to pick me up and transferred me to another facility because of financial issues (my family was very middle class and the insurance ran out eventually). I am relieved to say, the psychiatrist never took me to his home to those three rooms you described for additional treatment. Its mystery must have been beyond macabre. Given what was done in the seculdion rooms on the units, by the staff and in the open, in front of everyone, I cringe to think how much worse it could have gotten for the unfortunate patients that received this additional treatment at this house. I can't even begin to imagine, And frankly, don't want to even consider what ghosts live in those rooms and which souls were tortured in more extreme ways during their time at that house.

Thanks again for the information, it is both helpful, and reassuring in a kind if sick and twisted way.

[Will_O]

These stories made my skin crawl. The perpetrators need to be outed and held accountable. To the OP and any other victims, my heart goes out to you. I hope you've been able to recover from this trauma and lead some semblance of a normal life. Please consider banding together for a lawsuit.

[Sammy Williams]

Will O,
Thank you for your kind words of support. I completely agree with you about holding these individuals responsible for all the harm they inflicted on many many kids. Unfortunately, they have a built in protective structure, that they did not create, but I am sure they took full advantage of the situation. The ones hurt by these people are kids that were already deemed troubled and not following society's rules. Because of this, even when they speak the truth, they are not heard, listened to, or believed (this is the only reason I was surprised to hear of the sudden closure because that implied the information leaked out to the officials in some capacity, my guess a staff member who couldn't comply with their "treatment" methods). The patients of this facility were not only society's acting out teens, but were psychiatric patients. Often times they have difficulty communicating to others whatever their awareness is of their reality verse hullicinstions or paranoid thinking. The general public isn't willing to risk believing these patients, instead the public wants and needs to believe that the doctors and nurses entrusted with these children's care would be capable of such abuse. And lastly, emotionally I don't know if even as adults, we who survived that place, could cope with such a process, even if we have managed to establish something of an average daily existence. Even though I am the one who posted this, not even I think I could ever muster the strength and courage to confront those people. They really messed with my psyche and my emotional development and functioning. After leaving this place, being transferred to another facility, who believe it or not was also abusive, but not to the extremes as Golden Valley was, I was diagnosed with "Brief Reactive Psychosis". They literally broke me, and made my mind break and crack, splitting from reality. It took many years before I was stable enough to consistently live in the community as an independent adult. Even now, I still go to weekly counseling and have caseworkers, and such, being a client of the social services community. So I live my daily life the best I can, and people who meet me on the street would know me to be no different from themselves, nevertheless, I am different. I am unable work, have never been able to trust another person on the required intimacy level needed to marry and share a life with a spouse, so instead I live my life alone, and on the fringes of the community. This is not the kind of person the justice system represents, and believes. Even if they did, the community as a whole do not hold people such as myself in esteem, or as reliable and trustworthy individuals (despite the fact that I am quite the contrary).

People who take advantage of at risk and vulnerable populations know all these things. They operate with the understanding and protection because of how these groups of people are viewed by others as a whole. It's also something people still hide in the closet and they don't like to openly admit to being a psychiatric patient, regardless of how old they may have been or how long ago it was. Even I would not feel comfortable sharing all this information with people in my own life. This is one of the benefits of the internet: some level of privacy from the world. Even though my current caseworker and therapist know the historic facts that I was hospitalized at a psychiatric facility during my adolescence, I have never shared with them all of the information that I have written in this thread. My own sister does not know and she is literally the ONLY person in my life that I speak with, besides the professionals who work with me.

So it's a pleasant thought to imagine those monsters being held accountable for all they did to me, and to the many others that were also victimized by this institution, but it's only ever going to be imaginary. It will never come to pass. Even I know and can acknowledge this. But I thank you sincerely for your words of support and your voice, being willing to listen and say out loud to others "that wasn't right and shouldn't be tolerated". It means the world to me, and others like myself. So thank you.

[Campeador]

Originally Posted by Sammy Williams

Will O,
Thank you for your kind words of support. I completely agree with you about holding these individuals responsible for all the harm they inflicted on many many kids. Unfortunately, they have a built in protective structure, that they did not create, but I am sure they took full advantage of the situation. The ones hurt by these people are kids that were already deemed troubled and not following society's rules. Because of this, even when they speak the truth, they are not heard, listened to, or believed (this is the only reason I was surprised to hear of the sudden closure because that implied the information leaked out to the officials in some capacity, my guess a staff member who couldn't comply with their "treatment" methods). The patients of this facility were not only society's acting out teens, but were psychiatric patients. Often times they have difficulty communicating to others whatever their awareness is of their reality verse hullicinstions or paranoid thinking. The general public isn't willing to risk believing these patients, instead the public wants and needs to believe that the doctors and nurses entrusted with these children's care would be capable of such abuse. And lastly, emotionally I don't know if even as adults, we who survived that place, could cope with such a process, even if we have managed to establish something of an average daily existence. Even though I am the one who posted this, not even I think I could ever muster the strength and courage to confront those people. They really messed with my psyche and my emotional development and functioning. After leaving this place, being transferred to another facility, who believe it or not was also abusive, but not to the extremes as Golden Valley was, I was diagnosed with "Brief Reactive Psychosis". They literally broke me, and made my mind break and crack, splitting from reality. It took many years before I was stable enough to consistently live in the community as an independent adult. Even now, I still go to weekly counseling and have caseworkers, and such, being a client of the social services community. So I live my daily life the best I can, and people who meet me on the street would know me to be no different from themselves, nevertheless, I am different. I am unable work, have never been able to trust another person on the required intimacy level needed to marry and share a life with a spouse, so instead I live my life alone, and on the fringes of the community. This is not the kind of person the justice system represents, and believes. Even if they did, the community as a whole do not hold people such as myself in esteem, or as reliable and trustworthy individuals (despite the fact that I am quite the contrary).

People who take advantage of at risk and vulnerable populations know all these things. They operate with the understanding and protection because of how these groups of people are viewed by others as a whole. It's also something people still hide in the closet and they don't like to openly admit to being a psychiatric patient, regardless of how old they may have been or how long ago it was. Even I would not feel comfortable sharing all this information with people in my own life. This is one of the benefits of the internet: some level of privacy from the world. Even though my current caseworker and therapist know the historic facts that I was hospitalized at a psychiatric facility during my adolescence, I have never shared with them all of the information that I have written in this thread. My own sister does not know and she is literally the ONLY person in my life that I speak with, besides the professionals who work with me.

So it's a pleasant thought to imagine those monsters being held accountable for all they did to me, and to the many others that were also victimized by this institution, but it's only ever going to be imaginary. It will never come to pass. Even I know and can acknowledge this. But I thank you sincerely for your words of support and your voice, being willing to listen and say out loud to others "that wasn't right and shouldn't be tolerated". It means the world to me, and others like myself. So thank you.

I have read your posts here with a deep sense of horror and compassion. I hope the best for you in trying to overcome this inhumane mistreatment and establishing as healthy a life as is possible given the circumstances. As is evidenced by the lack of responses to this thread, this topic is one that the western world likes to sweep under the carpet and not think about, much to our own damage IMO. Your eloquence on the issue pushes me to recommend Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization if you haven't already read it. It is not an easy read, but it is fascinating and I think you might find it enlightening. I wish you the best of luck in making peace with this "chapter" of your life and going forward.

[Sammy Williams]

Camp...,
Thank you for your kind words. I am an avid reader but have never come across this book you recommend. I shall go out and search for it, and venture forward. Thanks again and wishing the best fir you and yours, as well.