Secaucus, New Jersey
Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 16,264,Snake Hill. In 1927 its patients were moved to a new facility on County Avenue (where Meadowview Hospital is now located) and its name was changed to Hudson County Hospital Mental Diseases. They were transported in buses and ambulances, according to a contemporary Newark Evening News article.
When the asylum originally opened it had a capacity of 140 patients. Different wings were designated for men and women, and each room held several beds. Patients were not limited to the mentally ill. Justification ranged from schizophrenia to
syphilis
Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...
. Many people were admitted to the hospital "who had no reason to be there: healthy residents who had been determined by their relatives to be a burden." Sometimes families signed in their elderly relatives when they could no longer afford to take care of them. At the time, it was not difficult to sign in a patient, but harder for one to leave the hospital. According to Secaucus Town Historian Dan McDonough, "Anybody could sign somebody in. However, you would need three doctors to sign you out." The causes of death of many patients were not recorded, because the patients had been given pauper's funeral in the
potter's field
A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pu ...
on the grounds, which was known as the Hudson County Burial Grounds. The Hudson County Hospital for Mental Diseases was renamed Hudson County Meadowview Hospital in 1967.Jones, Richard Lezin (March 31, 2002) "Secaucus Journal; Humbled Mountain Offers a Mine of History, and Prehistory" '' The New York Times''. Retrieved January 12, 2014.Passantino, Joseph (October 20, 2013). "Creepy history of Snake Hill". '' Hudson Reporter'', pp. 1 and 9.
Meadowview Hospital was the victim of serious neglect, losing state funding and license in the 1990s and in 1995 services were contracted out. The hospital began a slow road to recovery and in 2011 became an accredited mental health facility. Currently, the hospital only accepts patients referred from Acute Care Hospitals and offers 84 beds with inpatient treatment and serves the residents of Hudson and surrounding counties.
Meadowview
Meadowview is a neighborhood of Sacramento, California located in the southernmost region of the city.
Description
The Meadowview area is bordered by Florin road to the north, the Watt/I-80–Downtown–Meadowview Light Rail Line to the east, Jo ...
Meadowview
Meadowview is a neighborhood of Sacramento, California located in the southernmost region of the city.
Description
The Meadowview area is bordered by Florin road to the north, the Watt/I-80–Downtown–Meadowview Light Rail Line to the east, Jo ...