OPINION: The tragedy and history of Morningside Psychiatric Hospital

For 47 years from 1915 to 1962, Morningside Psychiatric Hospital in Portland, Oregon, was the sole bidder to provide care for Alaskans who had been ordered committed as mentally ill. For all those years, patients endured horrendously bad patient care and rights.

Every single policy and law that allowed for psychiatric patient mistreatment in Morningside Psychiatric Hospital should be eliminated. The elimination should start with a legislative review of psychiatric patient care and rights, past and present. Add to that a lot of soul-searching by state agencies that are still sending people to locked psychiatric facilities with what many consider an insufficient state standard of care.

In 1958, a report was submitted to the 85th Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives. Subject: The 400-bed psychiatric hospital, Morningside, in Portland, Oregon. Virtually all the patients were Alaska residents; many were Alaska Natives. Dr. Winfred Overholser, Superintendent of St. Elizabeth Hospital, the federal mental hospital in Washington, DC, headed the team that prepared the 62-page report presented to Congress. The report covered the years at Morningside from 1948 to 1957.

How did the mistreatment of psychiatric patients in Morningside Hospital continue for decades? The answer lies in the 1958 report to Congress. The federal government, the Territory of Alaska and later on, the state of Alaska all set a standard of patient care, but there was no effective enforcement mechanism. As soon as the close oversight left, managers of Morningside Hospital went back to business as usual. And that was denying psychiatric patients basic rights and quality of care in order for the facility to save money and to operate for convenience.

The 1958 report to the U.S. Congress on patient care at Morningside listed some of the following complaints: Patients worked 12 hours a day with one day off a week. The pay was 25 cents to $1 a week. Patients acted as house servants in the homes of hospital staff. Any money sent to patients by families back in Alaska was put into the general hospital funds and not given directly to patients.

There are a number of bad patient policies used by managers of locked psychiatric facilities in Alaska that have not improved over the past 60 years. And the inability of the state to find the will to require improvements in patient care and rights presents a clear danger to patients. In the 1958 report to Congress, one of the complaints was that Morningside Hospital was only providing custodial care. In other words, patients were simply warehoused. Not that long ago, the state ombudsman stated in a report that less than half of the patients at the state-run Alaska Psychiatric Institute were receiving an individualized treatment plan. It could be said that at the time, patients there were also simply warehoused.

The report submitted to Congress in 1958 concerning patient care at Morningside consisted of nine different reports or surveys that were conducted over 10 years. The average number of patients during that time was 350. Not a single patient was asked by surveyors about the number and type of patient complaints, injuries and whether patients experienced any traumatic events.

In 2024, surveys are still being done at psychiatric hospitals. Thousands of people each year rotate in and out of locked psychiatric facilities or units for forced evaluation or treatment in Alaska. The legacy of Morningside is still with us. Psychiatric patients are still not asked at a state level basic questions concerning their opinion of patient care. And the state does not keep statewide statistics concerning patient complaints, injuries and traumatic events and share them with the legislature and the general public.

The history of Morningside Psychiatric Hospital shows that patients were victimized. Every single policy and law that allowed for the mistreatment of patients must be removed by the legislature. There must be a state agency that is charged with protecting psychiatric patients and their rights and is required to enforce mental health laws and rules passed by the Legislature.

Faith J. Myers is the co-author of a white paper on needed improvements in psychiatric patient rights and care.

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