Prior to 1972, visitors to Connecticut state mental hospitals might have noticed a six-year-old chronically depressed girl crouching in the corner of a chaotic cafeteria, or a seven-year-old autistic boy sleeping on a cot next to a seventy-year-old schizophrenic man. Riverview Hospital for Children and Youth tells the story of one of the first milieu based therapeutic hospitals specializing in children's care, located in Middletown, Connecticut. Richard J. Wiseman, its first superintendent, offers his own story and treatment philosophy alongside the voices of the many people who worked tirelessly to free children from an adult mental health facility, and to treat children as children. This important book provides access to decades of experiences, useful tools, and knowledge regarding the treatment of children requiring mental health care. Weaving first-person narrative and interviews with staff, administrators, and patients, Riverview Hospital for Children and Youth testifies to the passion and determination it took to spring children from an adult mental health ward and bring them into a place of their own. A companion ebook comprised of three original staff manuals will also be available.

Richard J. Wiseman

Foreword, by Louis Ando
Author's Note and Acknowledgments
On the Way Up the Hill
A Place to Start
A New Home
A New Direction
Children Do Not Belong in Psychiatric Hospitals!
A New Name
The Evolution of a Milieu
Children's School
Recreation in the Children's Unit
Adolescence
Teamwork
Identity
Post-Merger
A Broader View of Change
Addressing the Mood in the Milieu
The Next Generation
APPENDIXES
Excerpts from The Behavioral Learning Environment Unit: BLEU-A Handbook and Training Manual Prepared for the Staff at Connecticut Valley Hospital Children's Unit
Excerpts from ABCD Program-Staff Manual
Excerpts from Sunburst Program Manual
Notes
Bibliography