Chicago-Read Mental Health Center
Encyclopedia
Chicago-Read Mental Health Center (CRMHC) is a state-run inpatient JCAHO accredited psychiatric facility with between 150 and 200 beds located in the neighborhood of Dunning
on the northwest side of the city of Chicago
close to O'Hare International Airport
in the state of Illinois
. It has served the adult residents of Chicago under various names since the middle of the 19th century as a repository for the mentally ill and destitute and as an alternative to incarceration for mentally ill offenders. Its former names have included the Chicago State Hospital and the Charles F. Read Zone Center; in 1885 it was called The County Insane Asylum and Infirmary. Originally it was simply known as "Dunning." though "Dunning" officially closed on June 30, 1912, and reopened the next day as Chicago State Hospital. Much later it later became the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center.
Read has faced a number of setbacks in its time. In 1901 it was found that nurses had starved to death two mental patients there; in 1992 it was under investigation for civil rights violations and in 1993 Read lost its accreditation altogether. In 1998 the director of the facility was dismissed under what were described as deplorable conditions for patients.
Dunning, Chicago
Dunning is one of 77 officially designated community areas of the city of Chicago, Illinois. Dunning also is a neighborhood located on the Northwest Side of the city.The neighborhood is home to the Eli's Cheesecake factory....
on the northwest side of the city of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
close to O'Hare International Airport
O'Hare International Airport
Chicago O'Hare International Airport , also known as O'Hare Airport, O'Hare Field, Chicago Airport, Chicago International Airport, or simply O'Hare, is a major airport located in the northwestern-most corner of Chicago, Illinois, United States, northwest of the Chicago Loop...
in the state of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. It has served the adult residents of Chicago under various names since the middle of the 19th century as a repository for the mentally ill and destitute and as an alternative to incarceration for mentally ill offenders. Its former names have included the Chicago State Hospital and the Charles F. Read Zone Center; in 1885 it was called The County Insane Asylum and Infirmary. Originally it was simply known as "Dunning." though "Dunning" officially closed on June 30, 1912, and reopened the next day as Chicago State Hospital. Much later it later became the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center.
Read has faced a number of setbacks in its time. In 1901 it was found that nurses had starved to death two mental patients there; in 1992 it was under investigation for civil rights violations and in 1993 Read lost its accreditation altogether. In 1998 the director of the facility was dismissed under what were described as deplorable conditions for patients.