The Influence of Quakers in Mental Healthcare

The Influence of Quakers in Mental Healthcare

QuakerSpeak is a weekly video series. New video every THURSDAY!

SUBSCRIBE for a new video every week! http://fdsj.nl/QS-Subscribe
WATCH all our videos: http://fdsj.nl/qs-all-videos

___

Become a Friends Journal subscriber for only $28
http://fdsj.nl/FJ-Subscribe

Filming and Editing by Rebecca Hamilton-Levi
Music: “Ghost Byzantine” by Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/)
___

Transcript:

Mary: When Friends Hospital was founded, in the United States there was still this idea that people that had mental health issues and crises really had something wrong with them and that they did not deserve to be treated equally. And so Friends Hospital was founded and really brought to light the idea that all of the patients are human and in terms of that historical significance, that really helped to shape other institutions around it and so it not only influenced just itself and the Quakers around Frankford, but really impacted the mental health field in the 19th-century.

The Influence of Quakers in Mental Healthcare

Joe: You know, the question is often asked, “How did Friends Hospital get its start?” and there was a group of convinced Quakers that believed in the early 1800s that the way folks with mental illness and substance use disorders, as they’re known today, were not being treated with that of God in every man.

Mary: Thomas Scattergood had traveled to England and had visited York Retreat, which was a mental health facility there– and he suffered from depression and mental health issues himself– and he thought that they should found something similar to that in the Americas.

Joe: So he came back and met with folks from the yearly meeting and in 1813, Friends Hospital, which was then Friends Asylum, was founded.

Mary: It was groundbreaking in its time for treating people humanely, coming out of those Quaker values of equality, believing that there’s that of God in everyone, and so we need to treat each other with respect, including people that may be suffering through mental health crises.

Quakers as Innovators

Joe: When we talk about behavioral health, I think we often fail to recognize that Quakers were tremendous innovators in behavioral health.

Mary: Some of the ways that they used Quaker values in their treatment is kind of the really big holistic look of the institution. From literally the ground that it’s on having a lot of land and the building itself, every patient had their own room and every room had windows and had light coming in. And this is something that we see stylistically, of feeling that renewal can come from that connection with light and air. There was actually a committee on light and air.

Joe: We also — I think because of the deep commitment that Quakers have to that unique spark in all of us and the interest in human dignity, there were a lot of other firsts that occurred at Friends Hospital. So you see pet therapy in its earliest forms at Friends Hospital. And then there were a number of greenhouses built in the campus, so you see horticulture therapy. Friends also had the first female physician at Friends Hospital. They also built on the grounds a large gym which became the precursor to recreational therapy. So, you know, a lot of firsts, a lot of innovation that came out of the Friends Hospital and the early Quaker community that was committed to improving mental healthcare.

The Creation of the Scattergood Foundation

So back in 2005, Friends Hospital had spent a number of years struggling economically and it formed a partnership with a for-profit entity to operate the 192 beds that are on the 100-acre campus in North-East Philadelphia, and as a result of that partnership the proceeds from forming that partnership had to be placed in a foundation that would continue to serve the greater community.

Mary: The Scattergood Foundation has provided support for work to happen to uplift stories and the history of Friends Hospital because their records are stored at Haverford College, and we now have a portal that’s called “Quakers and Mental Health.” And we’ve been building on it for the past five years and continue to do so into the future, where we really highlight the stories of not just the founders, not just the physicians, but also the patients themselves, as much as we can– trying to find the threads that there’s less information from, from the patients themselves, but to really bring humanity into the stories from the daily reports that we have, the minutes of the board, and materials like that.

Mental Health and COVID-19

More: fdsj.nl/Friends-Hospital

___

The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.