Sandy Hook Massacre Demands We 'Wake Up & See How Inadequate Our Mental Heath System Is' Says Filmmaker
Dec. 21 2012, Published 7:30 a.m. ET
By Debbie Emery - Breaking Celebrity News Reporter
The topic of mental health has been as widely debated as gun control in the wake of the Newtown school shooting tragedy, and has brought back troubling memories for one woman who was committed to an institution as a troubled teenager.
Instead of partying with high school pals or embarking on college life, Lucy Winer spent her late teens at the Kings Park State Hospital in New York following several suicide attempts in 1967, reported ABCNews.com.
The now abandoned Long Island institution once housed 9,000 patients in its imposing brick buildings, many of whom were given vague diagnoses for their mental or emotional issues, such as Lucy's verdict of "chronic differentiated schizophrenia."
"I was placed in the violent ward, for starters," recalled Winer. "All my possessions were taken from me.… I was highly medicated. There was no place to sit, maybe five or six chairs, so we all slept on the floor all day. It was neglect and neglect is abuse…We were not considered to be hu