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/4f LSU Medical Center
Psychiatric unit
offers treatment
close to patients.
By DAVID DODSON of The Times Staff
Photos by Times Chief Photographer LANGSTON McEACHERN
Dr. Micheal Allen supervises students at the psychiatric unit
Despite rapid and substantive
progress in the understanding and
treatment of mental illness, the
general societal dread of diseases of
the mind seems straight out of the
Dark Ages.
m
Although nearly one in five Amer-icans
is affected by some form of
mental illness, it has been and re-mains
a topic discussed in hushed
tones in the back rooms of our
homes and minds.
Until recently, even the law
viewed the mentally ill as some-thing
less than human. Basic civil
rights were legally denied to per-sons
in mental institutions.
Given the fear and misconcep-tions
associated with one of the
most prevalent of all modern ills,
psychiatrists often have to battle
the dread of mental illness before
they can help a patient by bringing
him in for treatment.
Dr. Michael Allen, since August
head of the psychiatric diagnostic
and treatment unit at LSU Medical
Center, is working to reduce the
stigma attached to mental illness
and to increase LSU's ability to
treat the sick and treat them close
to home.
Allen's aim
His aim is quite simply to make
LSU Medical Center the premier
psychiatric treatment unit for
North Louisiana.
He is well on his way.
When Allen came to the unit just
over four months ago, it was a
depressing place for the patients,
the doctors, the nurses.
With limited staff, inadequate
budget and little or no equipment,
the prospects were far from bright.
"It wasn't really practical to keep
many patients on the ward," Allen
said of the situation he walked into.
"We were getting a lot of the very
sick patients who had no funds and
who obviously could not be cared
for at the private psychiatric hospi-tals.
We found that it was logistical-ly
more feasible to commit them to
Central (State Hospital in Alexan-dria)
for long-term treatment."
Allen indicated the commitments
to Central were.at the root of the'
A few hours of his day are devoted to administrative duties
*-F Sun., Dec. 31, m i The Shreveport Times
Object Description
| Title | Psychiatric Unit Offers Treatment Close to Patients |
| Creator |
Dodson, David McEachern, Langston |
| Subject |
Allen, Michael Psychiatry Department (Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center - Shreveport) Psychiatry Mentally ill persons |
| Notes | photo of Michael Allen |
| Publisher |
Shreveport Times |
| Date | 1978-12-31 |
| Identifier | See reference URL on the navigation bar. |
| Source | Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport Medical Library (http://lib.sh.lsuhsc.edu) |
| Language | en |
| Relation | http://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/cdm4/index_LSUHSCS_NPC.php?CISOROOT=/LSUHSCS_NPC |
| Coverage-Spatial | Shreveport (Caddo, La.) |
| Rights | Physical rights are retained by Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport. Copyright is retained in accordance with U.S. copyright laws. |
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