Statement of Need and Recommendations

Recommendation 5:
Share the history of the Austin State Hospital   

HHSC and ASH enhanced efforts to support the historical aspects of the psychiatric system and develop ways to share the story of each state hospital. A significant commitment from HHSC to this end was implemented in 2021 by hiring the Historic Preservation and Grant Coordinator for the State Hospital System. This role coordinates the state hospitals' historical artifacts and creates plans, policies, and structures to help preserve the story. The person hired for this role co-chaired the History of ASH work group and together the members developed a set of three categories of recommendations: Sustainability, Funding, and an ASH Community History Center. With the support of the Historic Preservation and Grant Coordinator, HHSC has successfully initiated sharing the story of ASH with the greater community through two exhibits at the Bob Bullock Museum. To continue this momentum of sharing ASH’s story, the detailed report of next steps from the History of ASH work group is found in Appendix 9, and is summarized as follows: 

Sustainability Recommendations

There is an overwhelming number of artifacts from a hospital that has over 150 years of history, such as ASH, and there are several different methods to gather and continue to obtain that history. Within the work group, a member volunteered to complete a preservation needs assessment based on the items that ASH stored throughout the campus. This extensive undertaking includes items that ASH has saved and stored such as medical equipment, furniture, small medical and kitchen wares, documents, and more. The needs assessment will help ASH identify which items are feasible to preserve, define the space needed to preserve these items, and recommend next steps to prevent deterioration. 

Along with the needs assessment, it is recommended to purchase a collections management software to organize the items at each hospital and allow sharing for exhibits. A collections management system will allow HHSC to continue to capture other items that deserve preserving for future research and education. To build the collection, the work group recommended and provided planning to capture oral histories and a call for artifacts from future and present staff, individuals who have received care, family members and community members that have engaged with ASH over the years. The efforts to collect oral history are already underway with a work group being convened in the fall of 2022. 

Funding Recommendations 

The History of ASH work group developed several tools as appendices to their report to assist ASH and HHSC in increasing the knowledge and funding to support the continued preservation efforts to share the history of ASH. The tools include: 

• An academic institution list for partnering in historical artifact cataloging and preservation projects. 

• A list of available local and national grant opportunities categorized by project type. 

• A communications plan to share the work that ASH and HHSC are doing to preserve and share the ASH history, with the hope it will elicit gifts and philanthropy from the local community with a passion for such historical projects. 

ASH Community History Center Recommendation 

With the sustainability and funding planning provided by the work group, the ultimate end goal is to have a space that the artifacts and stories can be shared and stored. The group went through several steps to come up with initial plans for a center, the ASH Community History Center (ASH CHC). 

The ideal location for the ASH Community History Center is within building 501, “Old Main” on the campus. Using the space in “Old Main” is a meaningful choice since the building is a national historic landmark and provides a direct connection to the first hospital building on the campus. The national historic landmark designation of “Old Main” opens opportunities for specific grant funding for maintenance and needed improvements to create a community history space. Currently, “Old Main” houses the administration for ASH. With the opening of the new hospital, there is potential this building will be available for other uses. 

Each category above is scalable for HHSC to implement. Maintaining the Historic Preservation and Grant Coordinator role is required to move forward with any recommendations to keep the historical knowledge of the efforts and lead them through implementation. The history of ASH and other state hospitals is important to share with the community and assists with breaking the stigma of mental illness.