College Jobs II

I worked in the medical records department at the Mental Health Institute while I was in college. After college I worked there part time as an educational consultant. Prior to working there I had volunteered there on short-term projects a couple times as a boy scout or as a member of our church youth group.

Growing up there was a lot of mystery about the Mental Health Institute. People in neighboring communities often jokingly threatened to send each other to Mt. Pleasant if they acted silly. In Mt. Pleasant we just threatened to send people to the east end of town. We heard a lot of stories about the people out there. In the summer, groups of them would come to the pool to cool off. I don’t remember one negative incident in all of the times they came. Still, we talked about them with fear and uncertainty.

It wasn’t until the early 60s that they started using effective drugs with the patients and the institute population dwindled from nearly one thousand patients to only a little over 300. Many were there because they simply had no place else to go. Others were so severely mentally ill that medication wasn’t much help.

The institute consisted of the main three-story building with wings on each side. There were 2 wards on each floor of the east wing and the west wing. The patients lived on the wards. There were underground tunnels that linked that building to the hospital building, the employee residence, the physical plant building. There were several other smaller buildings. I am not sure how many were linked by tunnels.

I worked nights and weekends. My job was to process medical records, manage the front desk, and answer the phone. After nine o’clock each ward called in once each hour. They would identify their ward and then say “Ok”. Within a one or two minute period all wards would call in. I recorded it on a tally sheet all night long. If they didn’t call I would call them. I used to have dreams about it. “4 west, ok.”

Most of the time it was a very boring job. I was able to study some while I was there. Once in awhile on the weekends a patient would stop by to talk. On the night shift I rarely saw anyone. A night shift nurse might stop by but not often. On even more rare occasions a patient might be admitted. Sometimes if it wasn’t for the wards calling in I would have fallen asleep. That never happened even though I was on the verge of it a couple times.

I did avoid some patients while I worked there. I had been warned about the ones not to be alone with. I had to call for help a couple times when they showed up at my desk on weekends. At night they were in locked wards.

A few times, a social worker that lived in the employee’s building would stop in and play cards with me in the evening for a while. She was blind but had brail marked cards so she was impossible to beat when she dealt.