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The Crusade for Forgotten Souls: Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Institutions, 1946–1954

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The stirring story of the reform movement that laid the groundwork for a up to date mental health system in Minnesota

In 1940 Engla Schey, the daughter of Norwegian immigrants, took a job as a low-paid attendant at Anoka State Hospital, certainly one of Minnesota’s seven asylums. She would work among people who were locked away under the shameful label “insane,” referred to as inmates—and numbered more than 12,000 all through the state. She acquired the knowledge and passion that would lead to “The Crusade for Forgotten Souls,” a campaign to reform the deplorable condition of mental institutions in Minnesota. This book chronicles that remarkable undertaking inspired and carried forward by strange people under the political leadership of Luther Youngdahl, a Swedish Republican who was once the state’s governor from 1946 to 1951.

Susan Bartlett Foote tells the story of those who made the crusade a success: Engla Schey, the catalyst; Reverend Arthur Foote, a modest visionary who guided Unitarians to constructive advocacy; Genevieve Steefel, an inveterate patient activist; and Geri Hoffner, an intrepid reporter whose twelve-part series for the Minneapolis Tribune galvanized the public. These reformers overcame barriers of class, ethnicity, and gender to stand at the back of the governor, who, at a turbulent moment in Minnesota politics, challenged his own party’s resistance to reform. The Crusade for Forgotten Souls recounts how these efforts broke the stigma of shame and silence surrounding mental illness, publicized the painful truth about the state’s asylums, built give a boost to among citizens, and resulted in the first legislative steps toward a up to date mental health system that catapulted Minnesota to national leadership and empowered families of the mentally in poor health and disabled. Though their vision met resistance, the accomplishments of these early advocates for compassionate care of the mentally in poor health hold many lessons that resonate to at the moment, as this book makes compellingly clear.


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