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FARMINGTON STATE HOSPITAL PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN CITY S PAST The Daily Journal, Flat River, Mo., Monday, March 19, 1979

Recent months at time-honored Farmington State Hospital have seen important changes unfold.

A new law to safeguard patients rights became effective Jan. 1. Not long ago, according to Dennis Mobrice, hospital public information spokesman, the huge institution dropped its division by departments and began referring to branches of service as units. Personnel are encouraged to consider themselves as parts of a system of treatment units, working closely together. For example, specialists on alcohol and drug abuse coordinate plans with professionals mainly concerned with continuing care.

Mobrice said the pattern fosters better administration and accountability plus more flexibility in dealing with patients. General methods of therapy are said to have been replaced by plans tailored to the individual resident or outpatient.

Other transitions occurring near the time of the hospital s 75^th anniversary last year included the appointment of a new superintendent, Dr. Fred McDaniel, and the retirement of a man who had become an institution in himself, Dr. Emmett Hoctor. He ended approximately 53 years of continuous service to the hospital, 38 of those as superintendent.

A bill to rename the facility the Emmett F. Hoctor Medical Complex was pending in the Missouri Legislature early this year.

Hoctor might be one of the few people who knows of unique features involved in the hospital s early days.

Housing patients in attractive cottages surrounded by spacious lawns bordering wide streets was part of the hospital from its birth in 1903. That was a novelty for those times. Mental patients had almost always been housed in forbidding dormitories. The architects of the Farmington site visited Massilon, Ohio, where the cottage plan started in the United States and copied what they saw there. That made the St. Francois County compound only the second of its type in the nation.

The picturesque atmosphere has been preserved, making the sprawling grounds today seem like a college campus.

Another step that made the hospital something of a pioneer was the addition of a beauty parlor fairly early in its history. Leaders thought patients deserved the opportunity to keep their hair, fingernails and the like in sightly condition.

Patients in the earlier days were less anonymous to the general public than they are today. One resident of the hospital became known in the community as the Major. He was a Boer War veteran of the British Army, who had been decorated by Queen Victoria. The Major launched a canteen on the grounds, selling tobacco, chewing gum and candy to fellow patients.

He also traveled to the Post Office every day to collect the hospital s mail.

Farmington had to compete with other towns for a new mental health center for southeast Missouri when the state recognized the need for expansion. Sikeston, Ironton and Poplar Bluff were considered. The St. Francois County seat was the choice because 326 acres of slightly rolling land were offered for sale for $19,999.

Gov. A.M. Dockery was in office then. Dr. L.T. Hall was the hospital s first superintendent.

More land was added as needed. Today the complex covers 745 well-tended acres, part of which has been converted to other uses, including a detention center for juveniles. The mental-care service area extends over 28 counties with a population of 490,000.

The hospital is St. Francois County s largest employer, providing jobs for over 850 persons. Most of them live in the vicinity, and the annual payroll of some $8.9 million is considered a pillar of the economy. For that matter, Mobrice said, much of the annual budget of $10.7 million represents local expenditures.

Next year s budget is foreseen at the level of $13 million. The need for services for the emotionally troubled seems to grow endlessly. The hospital expanded rapidly upon opening. Ten years later 631 persons were housed there. In 1935, the annual consumption of beef amounted to 142,000 pounds, and the year s meals included 18,490 dozen eggs.

Today, the institution treats about 5,000 persons a year as residents, outpatients or persons in the care of their families. Funding is provided from federal, state and local sources and changes to patients who can afford to pay. Fees are based on a sliding scale correlated to a patient s income. However, no deserving person is denied treatment because of lack of income.

A recent addition is a surgical-medical building of 64 beds, containing an intensive care section and a second ward. The usual occupancy is between 40 and 45 persons, who are bothered by physical ailments on top of emotional disorders.

Of the patient population, only about 525 are residents of the facility. Others are accommodated in nursing homes or their own homes. Experts think disturbed individuals often fare better away from a hospital environment. Traveling clinics leave the grounds three times a month.

Many outpatients are part of the alcohol and drug abuse treatment center. An estimated 40 percent of all yearly admissions are into that section, which last year averaged about 35 patients at a time. Despite intensive professional efforts, an estimated 70 percent of those admitted for alcoholism return to their problem. Some of those, however, are thought to cut down on their drinking.

Chuck Lee is now clinical director of the drug and alcoholism facility. He recently replaced Dr. Javier Pichardo, who had guided the program since it started in 1967. Dr. Pichardo is now chief of the medical staff and consultant on drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

A patient enters the Farmington State Hospital basically through a voluntary or involuntary admission. The second route became more complicated this year because a law was passed to protect persons from being railroaded into a mental institution and perhaps lost there. Except in emergencies someone can be admitted against his will only through a court order. On an emergency basis, an involuntary admission needs approval by one of 17 persons designated as emergency mental health coordinators. Advance documentation from witnesses is demanded.

One of the 17 is Carlos Harwood, 28, hospital mental health coordinator. He is considered the guardian of patients rights and considers himself as much a representative of the courts and the general public as the institution. His job was created because of the new law. [Note: Mr. Harwood's long-time secretary was Ms. Loralyn Jones O'Brien who started working for him at the time this office was created until this office was eliminated by the State of Missouri effective June 2003.]

The Probate Court hearing for a 14-day commitment must be held within a 96-hour (not including weekends or holidays) period. Subsequent court hearings are mandated during 14-day, 90-day and one-year commitment periods. After that, patients are guaranteed an annual review of their hospitalization.

The crisis intervention team is generally made up of a psychiatrist, a psychiatric nurse, a psychiatric social worker and a consulting psychologist. The group reviews a new patient s history and recommends a future course of action. Until early last year, staff and time limitations confined this service to patients from only 10 counties. Now persons from all 28 counties served by the hospital are evaluated by the team.

Anyone in the service area with an urgent problem can now telephone a qualified counselor at the hospital at certain hours on a toll-free line.

In addition to fulfilling its own function, the Farmington State Hospital has become the location of other important public services. The St. Francois County health and juvenile detention centers are located in former medical care buildings. The Army reserve has leased land to build a $790,000 center on the hospital grounds.

Thanks goes out to Jeanne "Hunt" Nassaney for typing above article for us.

Dr. Emmett Francis Hoctor was born August 22, 1896, in Omaha, NE, the son of Thomas and Pauline Paulson Hoctor. He spent his entire career at the Farmington State Hospital from 1925 until his retirement in 1977. In 1966 Dr. Hoctor received the Knight of St. Gregory Award, the highest honor given to a Catholic layman bestowed by the Pope. He was a Jesuit-educated graduate of Creighton University Medical School in Omaha, Nebraska, where he received the Alpha Sigma Nu Award, which is a Jesuit honor given to the top student of the class. He also received Presidential Citations from Presidents Nixon and Ford.

A book was written about Dr. Hoctor entitled "Let Me Not Be Mad Sweet Heaven", which was published in 1977 by John Stewart, a former minister who called Dr. Hoctor "one of the greatest humanitarians I had the privilege to meet in my lifetime."

Dr. Hoctor was a member of the St. Joseph Catholic Church and served in World War I. He died on May 3, 1986, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska.

{Source: Farmington Missouri, the First 200 Years, Copyright 2000.}

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