"Despair for the Mentally Ill" - Lois Timnick - Los Angeles Times

Metro Hospital - Place of Little Hope

Byline: Lois Timnick; 1979-08-12; Los Angeles Times; pages A1

Report: Los Angeles Times

Tags: asylum, graduate psychology student, mentally ill, posed as, psychiatric

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"It is 3:30 a.m. on the darkened, locked wards of Metropolitan State Hospital, the hour that belongs to demons, nightmares, cold sweats and fears. A mockingbird is singing monotonously in a scrawny bush outside Ward 406. And inside, 20-year-old Dudley Stewart is screaming, "I don't want no shots, no drugs . . .."

Description:The newspaper’s front-page explainer reads: “Posing as a graduate psychology student, Times Human Behavior Writer Lois Timnick worked for two weeks inside Metropolitan State Hospital, gaining an unprecedented firsthand look at what goes on behind locked doors of the psychiatricwards. This report and other articles on Page 3 reveal a mental-health program that in many ways has no better chance of succeeding than the patients it purports to serve. It is underfinanced, poorly staffed and riddled with conflict.”

Rights: copyright, Los Angeles Times

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The newspaper’s front-page explainer reads: “Posing as a graduate psychology student, Times Human Behavior Writer Lois Timnick worked for two weeks inside Metropolitan State Hospital, gaining an unprecedented firsthand look at what goes on behind locked doors of the psychiatricwards. This report and other articles on Page 3 reveal a mental-health program that in many ways has no better chance of succeeding than the patients it purports to serve. It is underfinanced, poorly staffed and riddled with conflict.”