Psychiatric hospital facts for kids

The Narrenturm in Vienna (translates to fools' tower) was the first specialised building to lodge mentally ill patients. It was built in 1784. It is a museum of medical history today.

A psychiatric hospital is a place where mentally ill people are kept, sometimes until doctors are ready to place them into halfway houses, where they are slowly released into society. Group homes are open to people when they are released from a psychiatric hospital. Usually people choose to be in a psychiatric hospital. Sometimes psychiatrists decide to put people in hospitals who do not want to be there, because they think the people are dangerous to themselves or other people.

Psychiatric hospitals used to be called lunatic asylums.

Images for kids

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  Traverse City State Hospital, Traverse City, Michigan

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  Niuvanniemi Hospital, Niuva, Kuopio, Finland

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  Administration Building at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. McLean is noted for having once treated several New Englanders of renown, including Massachusetts Governor Nathaniel P. Banks, musician James Taylor, and poet Anne Sexton.

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  The York Retreat (c. 1796) was built by William Tuke, a pioneer of moral treatment for the mentally ill.

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  The Republican Vilnius Psychiatric Hospital in Naujoji Vilnia (Parko g. 15), is one of the largest health facilities in Lithuania; built in 1902, it officially opened on 21 May 1903.

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  Art Nouveau styled Röykkä Hospital, formerly known as Nummela Sanatorium, in Röykkä, Finland.

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  Vienna's Narrenturm—German for "fools' tower"—was one of the earliest buildings specifically designed for mentally ill people. It was built in 1784.

See also

In Spanish: Hospital psiquiátrico para niños