The Atlanta Journal from Atlanta, Georgia • 100

ACORN TO OAK How Savinas Grow Sava cadi month $5 $10. Winifred Pome, who chorgo of ffco psychiatric' wand of St. Joseph's hospital iss point oat tha now' 4 stainless Stoel scraons which raplacajaE ban.Thoy S25 131930 3499.00 5380.00 5 years 70 years 15 years' ferns 323.90 699.80 647.78 1,39936 2372.03 3 nf sf gqhsksgd oemm coaiaaa Q3UCEB CCD CQ GS3EQEE djlT 035 ifa ja wtteflHfr caofeg aaoeQgafipT jr 4 AUBURN AVI j) C' I HIGHLAND-VIRGINIA TENTH STREET GARDEN HILLS PEACHTREE PLAZA COLLEGE PARK LITTLE 5 POINTS OHn.I igw Av, A 5 OudUhi mQ HidUi 80100 tp CHOMC ttimcE mmn DONT PVT THE INSANE IN JAIL By ASH GERECHT THE insane shouldnt go to Jail. That is the indignant premise on which the Gannam American Legion Post No. 184, in Savannah, has established the first hospital psychiatric ward sponsored by an American Legion post in the State of Georgia, and possibly the only one of its kind in the country.

Last year Chatham County, as well as- just about every other county in Georgia, had nothing for the mentally ill but a. bare cell in the county jail, with barred windows and a hard mattress mi the floor as a bed. An insane veteran who had fought for his country was kept in this environment ten days, for observation, before the county's lunacy commission could commit him to a veterans hospitaL Civilians with mental disorders, unless three blood relatives signed a waiver permitting commitment, were also put in jail for a term before being committed to the state hospital at Milledgeville. Now all that is changed. Savannah has a hospital psychiatric ward, at St.

Josephs hospital and its need is proved by the fact that it is full nearly all the time. Several hundred patients have been treated there at St. James Hall but only four or five have been committed to an institution. Necessary treatment can be given in the hospital ward and the patient frequently sent home, saved from institutional commitment. The man responsible for the 'psychiatric ward is Harold A.

Waters, service officer of the Gannam Post of the American Legion (it was named after the first Savannahian killed in World War II, George K. Gannam). Last spring Mr. Waters encountered several cases of Post members who had been-sent to jail, not for any crime, but because there were no facilities in Savannah to give them proper treatment for mental illness while they were awaiting transfer to veterans hospitals. He brought this grievous condition to -the attention of the post, which agreed to sponsor a psychiatric ward for the city, with both veterans and non-veterans as patients.

St. Josephs, operated by, the Sisters of Mercy, was interested in such a ward and offered space for it. but the Post had to provide the money. Gene Summerlin, Past Commander Edward Ringwald and the present post commander, James E. Hogan, were among the committee members who pushed the campaign.

The post raised about $1,500 by solicitation and by sponsoring the Savannah Indians opening baseball game of 1947; and the membership voted $1,500 more of its own money. In July a check for $3,000 Was handed to Sister Mary Bride, hospital director, and on Sept. 2 the ward was opened. It has 12 regular beds, with a thirteenth available for emergencies. There are five-rooms, two of them used for disturbed cases.

The outer door on that section has a few holes drilled into it in a regular pattern, to lessen the closed door look while permitting observation unseen to the patient. On orders of the two psychiatrists in- Savannah, Dr. James B. Craig and Dr. A.

H. 24 THE ATLANTA JOURNAL MAGAZINE.