Amidst reports of rising juvenile delinquency the Fulton State Hospital decided in 1956 to accept emotionally disturbed youth. The children's ward opened the following year with a quota of twenty patients. By 1964, juvenile patients numbered over two hundred. In 1968, $3.8 million was appropriated for a six-building complex. Dedicated in 1971, the Hearnes Child & Youth Center provided the state's first such youth facility. Equipped with residential schools, gymnasium, recreational center, outpatient clinic, and special amenities, such as a television studio, the center advocated individualized programs designed for specific emotional, social, physical, and special educational needs.
Jane Rook, Director of Education Therapy, teaches a class of pre-adolescent boys at the Fulton State Hospital's Youth Center, c. 1959.
Some images in this exhibition have been electronically altered to protect the identity of past and present hospital patients.
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