Bryce Hospital Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Bryce Hospital
Front of Administration Building, the first and oldest building on campus, completed in 1859.
Geography
Location	Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States
Coordinates	33°12′59″N 87°32′18″W / 33.21626°N 87.53831°W / 33.21626; -87.53831
Organization
Care system	Public
Hospital type	Specialist
Services
Beds	268
Speciality	Psychiatric hospital
History
Founded	1861

Bryce Hospital is a very old and important hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It first opened in 1861. It is Alabama's oldest and largest hospital for people who need mental health care.

The hospital was first called the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane. Later it was known as the Alabama Insane Hospital. The main building is famous for its beautiful design. Today, Bryce Hospital has 268 beds for patients who need full-time care and rehabilitation. There is also a separate building on the same campus, the Mary Starke Harper Geriatric Psychiatry Hospital. It has 100 beds for older patients. The main hospital building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 because of its history.

History of Bryce Hospital
Challenges and Decline
Wyatt v. Stickney Lawsuit
The Future of Bryce Hospital
Gallery
See also

History of Bryce Hospital

Plans for a state hospital for people with mental illnesses in Alabama started in 1852. The new hospital was designed to follow special ideas about how buildings could help patients. These ideas came from activists like Thomas Story Kirkbride and Dorothea Dix in the 1830s. Dorothea Dix's ideas were very important in getting the hospital built.

The architect Samuel Sloan designed the building in a style called Italianate. Construction began in 1853 and finished in 1859. This hospital was the first building in Tuscaloosa to have gas lighting and central heating.

The Alabama Insane Hospital opened its doors in 1861. It was later renamed after its first leader, Peter Bryce. He was a young doctor from South Carolina who was a pioneer in mental health care. Dorothea Dix had suggested him for the job. Bryce had studied how mental health care was done in Europe. He also worked in hospitals in New Jersey and South Carolina.

Peter Bryce believed in strict rules for the staff. He demanded that patients always be treated with kindness and respect. He did not like using chains or straitjackets to hold patients down. By 1882, these methods were completely stopped. Patients were encouraged to join in activities like farming, sewing, and crafts. Between 1872 and the early 1880s, some patients even wrote their own newspaper called The Meteor. This newspaper gives us a rare look at what life was like in a modern mental hospital back then. At that time, Peter Bryce's way of running the hospital was seen as one of the best in the country.

Challenges and Decline

In the 1900s, the number of patients grew a lot. But the quality of care became very poor. In February 1967, Alabama Governor Lurleen Wallace visited the hospital. She was very sad to see the conditions. She asked her husband, George Wallace, who had a lot of power, to get more money for the hospital.

By 1970, Alabama was last among all U.S. states in how much money it spent on mental health care. Bryce Hospital had 5,200 patients living in very bad conditions. That same year, a tax that was supposed to help mental health care was cut. One hundred employees at Bryce, including twenty professional staff, lost their jobs. This cutbacks made the patient care even worse.

Wyatt v. Stickney Lawsuit

In October 1970, a 15-year-old named Ricky Wyatt became the main person in a big lawsuit. He had been staying at Bryce Hospital even though he didn't have a mental illness. His aunt, Mildred Hunter Rawlins, was one of the employees who had been laid off. They both spoke about the terrible conditions and treatments that only made patients easier to control.

In 1971, the lawsuit grew to include patients from other mental health hospitals in Alabama. These included Searcy Hospital and Partlow State School. The lawsuit, called Wyatt v. Stickney, led to new rules. These rules became the basic standards for how people with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities should be cared for in hospitals.

In 1999, a new agreement was made, showing that a lot of progress had happened. The case finally ended on December 5, 2003. A judge found that Alabama had followed the agreement.

The rules from this lawsuit are known as the "Wyatt Standards." They have been used as a model across the country. These standards have four main ideas for good patient care:

A kind and safe place for patients.
Enough trained staff to give treatment.
Special treatment plans for each patient.
Patients should have as much freedom as possible.

The Wyatt v. Stickney case lasted for 33 years. It was the longest mental health case in United States history.

The Future of Bryce Hospital

On December 30, 2009, Governor Bob Riley announced that Bryce Hospital would move to a new building. This new hospital would be built across the street in Tuscaloosa. The University of Alabama (UA) would then take over the old Bryce campus. The university had wanted this land for many years because it was next to their campus.

The plan was to build a new hospital for about 268 patients. The University of Alabama paid $50 million in cash for the land. The state also gave $22 million in bond money for the new hospital. The university also promised to spend $10 million to clean up the old Bryce grounds and fix the main hospital building.

The sale of Bryce Hospital and Harper Center to the University of Alabama was completed on May 27, 2010. The total cost was $87.75 million. In 2014, the remaining patients moved to the new Bryce Hospital. This new hospital was built on the old Partlow Center grounds.

The University of Alabama then started a big project to restore the old Bryce Hospital building. This project is expected to cost about $40 million. Dan Wolfe, a planner for the university, said that the two main buildings will become a welcome center, two museums (one about mental health and one about the university's history), event spaces, and classrooms for students studying performing arts. This big project is still happening.