Published: May 05, 2008 08:21 am            

Northwest Behavorial Health to open time capsule

Northwest Center for Behavioral Health is gearing up for a celebration.

Monday will be the 50th anniversary of the day that workers of Northwestern Center for Behavior Health (NCBH), then Western State Hospital, placed a time capsule in front of their administration building in honor of the hospital’s 50 years of operation.

The time capsule, or space capsule as it is referred to on the plaque that marks its location, was buried on May 5, 1958 as part of activities held at Western State Hospital for mental health week, said Joyce Pettey, director of personnel services for NCBH.

However, the time capsule is not scheduled to be unearthed until later this month on May 20, when the center celebrates its 100th anniversary, according to Trudy Hoffman, executive director NCBH.

The hospital’s centennial celebration will begin at 11:30 a.m. with a lunch of barbecue and beans, which is intended to be reminiscent of the type of meal that might have been served in 1908, Pettey said.

There will be a charge of $1 per meal, she said, explaining “that’s what people were paid for a whole day’s work 100 years ago.”

After lunch, the celebration will continue with the unearthing of the time capsule at 1 p.m., Hoffman said.

“We have no idea how big it is or what all is in it,” Pettey said.

She said she has heard some rumors that there might be a nursing cap inside, but she doesn’t know for sure and can’t wait to find out.

Western State Hospital was established when the military post at Fort Supply was converted to a hospital, she said, noting that it officially opened on May 20, 1908.



Having gotten its start just a few months after Oklahoma became a state, NCBH is known as “the oldest state-owned hospital for mental disease in Oklahoma,” Pettey said.

The first patients at the hospital were transferred by train from a private sanitarium in Norman, Hoffman said.

But the train only brought the 406 patients to Tangier, she said. Local citizens met the train and transported the patients the rest of the way to Fort Supply in wagons, buckboards and buggies, she said.

In a pamphlet printed in honor of the hospital’s golden anniversary in 1958, the hospital’s 400 or so patient population in 1908 was compared to its 1958 patient population of 1,300.

Today the center only has an in-patient population of 85, Hoffman said. However, she said its current out-patient population is around 1,800.

This not only shows how the center has continued to serve more patients over the years, Hoffman said, but also shows the shift in mental health treatment since 1908.

“Back then we didn’t have the diagnosis or medication we do today,” she said.

A lot of the same mental illnesses that people were institutionalized for 100 years ago can now be treated through medication so they can continue to live and function in the community, Hoffman said.

There has been a lot of progress made in mental health care, she said. But there have been some other changes in the field that haven’t been quite as beneficial.

Some other statistics in the 1958 pamphlet also demonstrate the rising cost of health care over the years. The pamphlet noted that the hospital spent $704.51 on medicine and drugs in 1908, compared to $38,000 spent on medicine and drugs in 1958.

Today the hospital can easily spend over $1 million on medicine and drugs in a year, Hoffman said.

However, mental health care is an important part of our society, she said, noting that having a facility like NCBH “is a great asset for our community.”

        

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