The Path Forward: Remembering Willowbrook - Full Documentary

Comments · 781

• LO

  @lorrainehilgendorf2165 · 3 years ago

  I was born with epilepsy.<br>Docs told my mom to put me in an institution. <br>She told them he&apos;ll no . And raised me herself. <br>Thank you momma .

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• BL

  @blakeaaron5698 · 2 years ago

  My sister was born in 1978 with a severe form of muscular dystrophy. <br>Doctors told my mom it would be best for everyone if she were institutionalized. <br>My mom refused, took her home, and did her best to raise a confident and adept child. <br>Though wheelchair-bound and unable to use her arms or legs, my sister went on study at Stanford University. <br>By age 27 she had earned 2 bachelors degrees, 2 masters degrees, and a PhD. <br>She is now a tenured professor, mother, published author, painter, and has travelled the world.

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• LO

  @loveycat5474 · 3 years ago

  That could of had been me. I was misdiagnosed at age five of profound mental retardation because I was not talking and did not respond to the psychologist. My patents refused to believe the doctor and took me home and raised me as one of the family. They refused to have me placed in a institution. I am now 60, work as a teacher specializing in autism for over 20 years and living on my own.

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• DE

  @deniseshannon4645 · 3 years ago

  My oldest sister was born with Down&apos;s Syndrome. Back in the 50&apos;s, people just had their kids put in mental institutions, not my parents. My sister lived at home till her passing at the age of 54. &nbsp;My mom became an advocate for education for the mentally disabled in our home town and was an Special Olympic&apos;s coach many years.

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• SU

  @Sunglow_Spirit · 2 years ago

  My Grandmother, Francis Olivero, was murdered while being held at the Willowbrook. <br>She will never be forgotten❤️💐

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• SH

  @Shannonbarnesdr1 · 3 years ago

  its not just letchworth and willowbrook, just about every single state and county institution in every state was like this, a few good exceptions were a few of the private owned and ran places &nbsp;were decent, &nbsp;but most of these places were just deplorable and cruel and inhumane. &nbsp;i do feel however that yes, while quite a few do great in the community, there are so many that just do not and cannot really participate in the community and do better in a sheltered institution or structured environment, they should have changed how these were run, &nbsp;make sure clients had their own belongings, clothes, privacy, cleanliness, human and civil rights; &nbsp;and also, &nbsp;institutionalization should have only been a last resort, &nbsp;not a primary choice, and not for young children , &nbsp;but after &nbsp;over 20 years of working in social services, i can say that, &nbsp;yeah, community supports &nbsp;can be great, but one size does not fit all, and, abuse and mistreatment, &nbsp;denial of dignity and rights sadly happens quit often with home and community support programs and in group homes: &nbsp; plus, because of these type places shuttered slowly over the decades, is a large part of why we have such severe homeless problems, as around 70 to 80 percent of them are mentally ill and or disabled, &nbsp;we have left it up to &nbsp;&apos;&apos;personal choice&apos;&apos; to get treatment when by default most of these folks are incompetent and cannot make a sound decision as ill and unstable as they are, &nbsp;so &nbsp;the institutions should not have been shut down, they should have revamped the system and policies , and &nbsp; mental health screening and treatment needs to, at times, be mandatory for those who clearly cannot manage themselves on their own.

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• MA

  @mariekatherine5238 · 2 years ago

  This was in my lifetime. &nbsp;A school friend of mine had an older sister who was at Willowbrook. &nbsp;Her parents had to grease some palms to get her out. &nbsp;It took about a month, during which time they fattened her up, cleaned her up, but still, she was underweight, had callouses on her elbows, knees, toes, and the palms of her hands, and she stank. &nbsp;The reason she was there was because she had Down Syndrome, a mental age of what was misdiagnosed as three or four. &nbsp;She received no therapy, no education, not even proper care. &nbsp;She was not toilet trained. &nbsp;Turned out she learned to care for herself, read, navigate around Queens by bus. &nbsp;She lived in a regular group home with assistants who supervised chores, taught or coached residents, etc. &nbsp;She had a part time job and became an artist. &nbsp;Several of her paintings hang in the state capital in Albany. &nbsp;She later moved to California with her sister after the deaths of their parents. &nbsp;She enjoyed fairly good health until her late 40’s and passed of a heart condition at age 52.

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• LA

  @laurencaulton103 · 3 years ago

  This is why we must maintain freedom of the press. The press tells us the stories we don&apos;t know about. Stories we don&apos;t know we need to hear. Once they tell the story, people can act.

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• JA

  @jackesioto · 3 years ago

  Those residential institutions were downright terrible! However, just as bad was patients not having support systems when they were thrown out of the hospitals they lived in. Look where deinstitutionalization has got us now, rampant drug addiction, homelessness through the stratosphere, waste of law enforcement and jail resources arresting and imprisoning the mentally ill for things like disorderly conduct, etc. Those people still often end up institutionalized anyways, the asylum has been replaced by the homeless shelter, the jail\prison, and the group home.

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• TH

  @TheReevessss · 3 years ago

  3 steal doors installed by someone in authority for toddler area tells me to silence the crying.

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• MI

  @michelebella677 · 2 years ago

  Geraldo and Jane Kurtin really were the people who helped to expose the abuse of people with physical and intellectual disabilities in institutions. Had they not done this brave work, who knows what laws would’ve been prevented from being passed.

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• HI

  @hidbee · 3 years ago

  I have a family member with an intellectual disability in New York State. This could have very easily been him. Because of advocacy, hard work and a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my grandparents and his siblings, he is a contributing member of society with an active social life, a purpose and is loved and values by his numerous nieces and nephews

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