40th History Brochure-r2 - Frank D. Lanterman Regional Center

Historical highlights…1955 In California, five state hospitals – De Witt, Pacific(later renamed Lanterman), Modesto, Porterville andSonoma – house approximately 8,500 people withmental retardation. Over the next 45 years there iscontinual change in the identity of the large stateinstitutions serving people with developmentaldisabilities. At any given time there may be asfew as five and as many as nine state institutions.Some of these institutions serve only people withdevelopmental disabilities while some serve thispopulation and people with serious mental illness.1959 Fairview, the sixth state hospital to serve peoplewith developmental disabilities, opens in OrangeCounty. This is the last state institution to be builtin California.The introduction of psychotropic medicationsinto California’s state hospitals allows large numbersof seriously mentally ill persons to leave theseinstitutions and live in the community. Increasingly,these same drugs are used for behavioral control ofpeople with developmental disabilities living in thecommunity and in the state institutions. Eventually,both the communityand institutionalservice systemsbecome over-relianton these drugs.Because publiclyfundedservices areextremely limited andalmost exclusivelyinstitutional, acrossthe country, familiesof people with mentalretardation createtheir own support and service systems. InCalifornia, parent-run organizations such as theExceptional Children’s Foundation (Los Angeles),Villa Esperanza (Pasadena), and Aid for RetardedChildren (San Francisco) establish private schools,activity centers, sheltered workshops andresidential services.The Traveling Child Development Project, underthe direction of Dr. Richard Koch, begins providingassessment, diagnosis and counseling for childrenwith developmental disabilities and their parents in15 Southern California communities. This projectevolved out of an earlier activity – a Special Clinicfor the Study of Mental Retardation, directed byDr. Koch, funded by the U.S. Children’s Bureau, andoperated out of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.“We’re here to speak for justice andhumanity for the legal and moral rightsof half a million citizens of the state ofCalifornia who through no fault nor choiceof their own are mentally retarded.”VIVIAN WALTERAn outspoken and active pioneer in the field of developmentaldisabilities, Vivian Walter joined San Francisco ARC a year afterher son Ned was born with Down syndrome. As part of thatgroup, she created a one-woman Hospital Committee andbegan going to the state hospitals. It was during those visitsthat she began to see how desperate conditions truly were –and that realization moved her to act, and set into motion aseries of events that would bring about a dramatic change inboth the hospitals and the treatment of individuals with mentalretardation. Ultimately, these activities would culminate in theLanterman Act.Through her friendship with Dr. Gunnar Dybwad, she invitedhim to California to see the state hospitals first-hand. Hisreaction added impetus to the growing movement for reform.She was a member of the board of Golden Gate RegionalCenter – one of the two pilot centers established in 1966.She was chair of Mental Hygiene for the California Councilfor Retarded Children. She also went on to be presidentof the board of San Francisco ARC, and vice president of theSouthwest Region of the ARC National Board. In addition, sheserved on the State Board for the Developmentally Disabledunder governors Pat Brown and Jerry Brown. Ms. Walter diedin December 2002 at age 88.P I O N E E R P R O F I L E3