| Winnebago Mental Health Institute | |
| Institute in 2010 | |
|
Shown in Wisconsin
|
|
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Oshkosh (Winnebago), Wisconsin, United States, |
| Organisation | |
| Funding | Wisconsin Department of Health Services |
| Hospital type | Specialized |
| Affiliated university | Wisconsin Department of Health Services |
| Patron | None |
| Services | |
| Emergency department | No |
| History | |
| Founded | 1873 |
| Links | |
| Website | http://dhs.wisconsin.gov/mh_winnebago/ |
Winnebago Mental Health Institute, formerly the Winnebago State Hospital, is a psychiatric hospital in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States within the unincorporated community of Winnebago, Wisconsin.[1]
The Winnebago State Hospital was one of several 19th-century psychiatric hospitals in the United States built on the Kirkbride Plan, a style of mental asylum design advocated by Philadelphia psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride in the mid-19th century. The hospital was the object of a competition between Green Bay and Oshkosh in 1870. The voters in the area approved an expenditure of $16,700 to begin construction.[2]
Construction first began for the institute in 1871. It opened in 1873 as the Northern Hospital for the Insane, with the first patient admitted on April 21, 1873. The building was completed on November 11, 1875, with a capacity of 500 beds.[2]
In recent years, the institute has undergone renovations to reduce the opportunities for patients to commit suicide,[3] but the renovations were later criticized as inadequate.[4]
In 2007, a newspaper reported that there had been three deaths and a rape at the hospital in a two-year period.[5]