Opinion: The tragedy and history of Morningside Psychiatric Hospital

For 47 years, from 1915 to 1962, Morningside Psychiatric Hospital in Portland, Oregon, was the sole bidder to provide treatment to Alaskans who were committed as mentally ill. Throughout that time, patients endured abysmally poor patient care and rights.

All policies and laws that allowed the abuse of psychiatric patients at Morningside Psychiatric Hospital should be repealed. Repeal should begin with a legislative review of past and current care and rights for psychiatric patients, along with deep self-reflection by state agencies that continue to send people to closed psychiatric facilities for what many consider to be inadequate state standards of care.

In 1958, a report was presented to the House of Representatives, Second Session, of the 85th Congress. The subject was Morningside, a 400-bed psychiatric hospital in Portland, Oregon. Most of the patients were Alaskans, many of them Alaska Natives. Dr. Winfred Overholser, the director of St. Elizabeths Hospital, a federal psychiatric hospital in Washington, DC, led the team that prepared the 62-page report presented to Congress. The report covers events at Morningside from 1948 to 1957.

Why did the abuse of psychiatric patients at Morningside Hospital continue for decades? The answer lies in a 1958 report to Congress: The federal government, the Territory of Alaska, and later the State of Alaska set standards for patient care, but there was no effective enforcement mechanism. Without strict oversight, Morningside Hospital administrators went back to business as usual: denying psychiatric patients basic rights and quality care for the sake of cost-saving and convenience for their facility.

A 1958 report to the U.S. Congress about patient care at Morningside Hospital listed several complaints, including: Patients worked 12 hours a day with one day off per week. Pay ranged from 25 cents to $1 a week. Patients worked as housekeepers in the homes of hospital staff. Any money sent to patients by their families in Alaska went into the hospital’s general fund and never went directly to the patients.

There are many inappropriate policies for patients adopted by the administrators of Alaska’s closed psychiatric facilities that have not improved in the past 60 years, and the state’s inability to find will to improve patient care and rights is a clear danger to patients. In a 1958 report to Congress, there were complaints that Morningside Hospital was providing only custodial care. In other words, patients were simply warehoused. Not that long ago, the state ombudsman stated in a report that fewer than half of patients at the state Alaska psychiatric hospital received individualized treatment plans. At the time, patients there were also simply warehoused.

A report on patient care at Morningside Hospital presented to Parliament in 1958 consisted of nine different reports or investigations conducted over a ten-year period, with an average patient population of 350 over that period. The investigators did not ask a single patient about the number and type of patient complaints or injuries, or whether they had experienced any traumatic events.

In 2024, psychiatric hospital investigations are still ongoing. Thousands of Alaskans enter and leave closed psychiatric facilities and wards each year for involuntary evaluations and treatment. Morningside’s legacy is still with us. Psychiatric patients aren’t even asked basic questions at the state level about their opinions on patient care. And the state doesn’t keep statewide statistics on patient complaints, injuries, or traumatic events, or share them with the Legislature or the public.

The history of Morningside Psychiatric Hospital shows that patients were harmed. All policies and laws that allow for the abuse of patients must be repealed by Congress. We need state agencies that are responsible for protecting mentally ill people and their rights and that must enforce the mental health laws and regulations passed by Congress.

Faith J. Myers He is a co-author of White Paper About psychiatric patients’ rights and the need for improved care.

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