RIVERVIEW HOSPITAL
FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH
A DRIFTLESS CONNECTICUT SERIES BOOK
This book is a 2015 selection in the Driftless Connecticut Series, for an outstanding book in any field on a Connecticut topic or written by a Connecticut author.
RIVERVIEW HOSPITAL
FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH
A Culture of Promise
. . .
RICHARD J. WISEMAN
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
© 2015 Richard J. Wiseman
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Typeset in Arnhem by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
The Driftless Connecticut Series is funded by the
BEATRICE FOX AUERBACH FOUNDATION FUND
at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative.
The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.
The manual excerpts in this book are provided for historical reference and are not recommended or endorsed by Connecticut’s Department for Children and Families.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wiseman, Richard
Riverview Hospital for Children and Youth : a culture of promise / Richard J. Wiseman.
pages cm.—(A driftless Connecticut series book)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8195-7589-0 (cloth: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8195-7590-6 (ebook)
1. Riverview Hospital for Children and Youth (Middletown, Conn.) 2. Mentally ill children—Care—Connecticut—Middletown. 3. Child psychotherapy—Residential treatment—Connecticut—Middletown. I. Title.
RJ504.5.W56 2015
618.92′89140097466—dc23 2015011319
5 4 3 2 1
Cover illustration: Aerial Photograph of Riverview Hospital, circa 1995. Courtesy of Richard Ribisl
To my wife, Eunice G. Wiseman, our son, Kenneth R. Wiseman, and our daughter, Lauren W. Sullivan, who sat through many family meals while I monopolized the conversation talking about the latest growing pains of the new Children’s Unit
RiverView—The Years
Jacqueline Reardon, 1984
A time for us, for them
Those countless faces
The hurt they feel, we feel
Their tears awash with our own
The joys of discovery
They awaken
To light
To life
To self
And we rejoice with them
For we, too, are awakened
To all that is theirs …
And ours
CONTENTS
…
Author’s Note and Acknowledgments xvii
5. Children Do Not Belong in Psychiatric Hospitals! 45
7. The Evolution of a Milieu 64
