File:How the uncared-for epileptic fares in Illinois; colony care the remedy; a plea for immediate legislative action; how you can help (1912) (14766427434).jpg

Identifier: howuncaredforepi00comm (find matches)
Title: How the uncared-for epileptic fares in Illinois; colony care the remedy; a plea for immediate legislative action; how you can help
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: The Committee of Fifty
Subjects: Epilepsy -- Illinois Epileptics -- Illinois
Publisher: (Chicago)
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
twenty. To show the great length of time which often intervenedbetween the time of the first attack and the admission to hospi-tal care, the state institutions for the insane of Illinois were askedto report the duration of the attacks at time of admission. Of196 cases reported from the three institutions at Watertown,Kankakee and Jacksonville, 14, or 7 per cent, received treatmentvery soon after the onset of epilepsy, y^i^ or -^y per cent, waitedfrom two to ten years before they were admitted to the hospitals,45, or 23 per cent, from ten to twenty years, and 64, or 32 percent, did not enter hospitals until more than twenty years afterthe onset of the disease. One man waited fifty-five years, an-other fifty-three, another fifty, and nine for forty years or over. These people had to wait till loneliness, neglect, lack of em-ployment, humiliation and disappointment had contributed tophysical, mental and moral decline—before any door was open—and that the door of an insane asylum. 26
Text Appearing After Image:
27 Ten Thousand Epileptics in Illinois* The Problem by Senatorial Districts. This figure is arrived at by applying to the population ofIllinois the estimates of experts the world over, viz., that thereis one epileptic in every three to five hundred of the population;we have taken the larger number, one in five hundred. This es-timate is arrived at after intensive studies among large groupsof people, and is accepted by the best authorities in practicallyevery civilized country. During the summer of 1912 a casual inquiry as to the prev-alence of epilepsy was made in each senatorial district of thisstate. Social workers, teachers, physicians, superintendents ofinstitutions, poor farms, officials of dispensaries and others werevisited and all co-operated heartily. This very cursory studyhas made it seem that the estimate of one in five hundred is anunder-statement of the real situation. The stories set forth in this pamphlet indicate something ofthe struggles and hardships of the individu

Note About Images