Frances Farmer Room

At that first meeting in 2000, hospital staff, patients and citizens organized themselves into a group they called the Grave Concerns Association.  They discussed plans about how to restore the hospital cemetery and bring honor and dignity to the forgotten.  Patient advocates, genealogical societies, gardening groups, and cemetery restoration experts offered advice and counsel.  Work parties were organized. Memorials were held to honor the dead and reveal the names of those loved ones lost to history. 

Music room - dedicated to "play therapy"

In 2001, the Earth shook the hospital grounds.  Buildings were damaged and hundreds of patients were moved around to other wards.  During demolition, old artifacts had to be moved to an abandoned ward.  This afforded an opportunity to the GCA volunteers to organize those artifacts into an historical museum that would complement the work done by the Grave Concerns Association (GCA).

Kathleen Benoun with samples of "work therapy"

 Since 2004, the WSH historical museum has been toured by hundreds of visitors that include students, elected officials, the public, and hospital patients and staff.  On September 13, Kathleen Benoun — from the Washington State Library/Institutional Library Services–  hosted an open-house at the museum for visitors in honor of National Recovery Month and Heritage Happens Month — Pierce County.

Some months ago, two ILS staff decided to write to some publishers of mental health resources and ask them about the possibility of receiving donated materials.  National Recovery Month is every September and their collections were sadly depleted from the demand for such materials.  They hoped that one or two of the companies might respond with an offer of a few donations.  Much to their amazement and profound appreciation three companies responded within weeks of the letters being sent.

Hazelden and New Harbinger are outstanding publishers of educational and inspirational literature about substance abuse and recovery.  Their products are consistently of the highest quality, and highly sought for library collections.  Sounds True produces wonderful spoken word and music CDs for relaxation, meditation and health & healing.  The gifts received from these generous companies resulted in dozens of books and several multiple CD sets.  The cost to buy these materials would have been hundreds of dollars.

Western State Hospital immediately processed and published a “hot list” of the new Hazelden titles.  The books started flying off the shelves within hours.  Eastern State hospital patients will benefit from these gifts as well as staff who can use these resources for treatment groups.  This bounty will also be shared among the other ILS branches either directly or through the ILL program.