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Log inA lifetime of helping Maine's most vulnerable
A lifetime of helping Maine's most vulnerable
by Outspoken on Sun Jun 29, 2008 5:56 am
A lifetime of helping Maine's most vulnerable
BY MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal
AUGUSTA -- More than any other staff member at Riverview Psychiatric Center, Dr. Jose Castellanos has witnessed transformation.
When the Mexico City native arrived in Augusta to work as a physician at the then-Augusta Mental Health Institute, he found an 1,800-patient facility where patients who checked in often spent their last days.
That was 50 years ago.
Today, Castellanos oversees medical care for half the patients at a four-year-old, 92-bed facility -- now called Riverview Psychiatric Center -- that has begun to focus on rehabilitation rather than isolation.
On July 30, Castellanos, 82, will mark 50 years of service at the psychiatric center. And retirement plans are nowhere in sight.
"Closing my eyes, the time flies," he said Friday in an interview in which he spoke in both English and Spanish. "I could retire tomorrow, but I still love my patients. They give me satisfaction more than any money can give."
Attending medical school at the National University of Mexico in Mexico City, Castellanos spent one year as an intern in Huasteca, a tropical region along Mexico's eastern Sierra Madre mountain range, where he performed some of his first surgeries.
He recalls one difficult operation during which he had to tie a "drunk fellow" to the operating table with ropes to restrain him. The equipment and treatments available to him were primitive, Castellanos said.
He finished medical school in 1950 and, after a brief stint at a Mexico City hospital, decided to relocate to the United States to continue his training. In 1953, he arrived in Massachusetts, where he worked at hospitals in Boston, Danvers and Lynn.
A simple economic decision led Castellanos to Augusta in 1958, when he chose a job at AMHI over an opportunity in Alaska.
"Because I didn't have a car to go to Alaska, I came to Maine," he said.
Castellanos relocated to an apartment, and later a house, on the AMHI campus with his wife, Doris, and two daughters, then 10 months and 2 years old.
Soon after moving in, Castellanos said he and his family discovered an anti-AMHI stigma in and around Augusta.
"In some ways, the people in the community were afraid of us," he said. "My kids, they were ostracized in school."
The facility where Castellanos began his work has changed fundamentally.
When he arrived in 1958, AMHI divided patients into male and female sections. Today, Riverview sends a patient to one of four wards, depending on the type of mental illness and legal status.
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5190707.html
Staff photo by Joe Phelan
BY MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal
AUGUSTA -- More than any other staff member at Riverview Psychiatric Center, Dr. Jose Castellanos has witnessed transformation.
When the Mexico City native arrived in Augusta to work as a physician at the then-Augusta Mental Health Institute, he found an 1,800-patient facility where patients who checked in often spent their last days.
That was 50 years ago.
Today, Castellanos oversees medical care for half the patients at a four-year-old, 92-bed facility -- now called Riverview Psychiatric Center -- that has begun to focus on rehabilitation rather than isolation.
On July 30, Castellanos, 82, will mark 50 years of service at the psychiatric center. And retirement plans are nowhere in sight.
"Closing my eyes, the time flies," he said Friday in an interview in which he spoke in both English and Spanish. "I could retire tomorrow, but I still love my patients. They give me satisfaction more than any money can give."
Attending medical school at the National University of Mexico in Mexico City, Castellanos spent one year as an intern in Huasteca, a tropical region along Mexico's eastern Sierra Madre mountain range, where he performed some of his first surgeries.
He recalls one difficult operation during which he had to tie a "drunk fellow" to the operating table with ropes to restrain him. The equipment and treatments available to him were primitive, Castellanos said.
He finished medical school in 1950 and, after a brief stint at a Mexico City hospital, decided to relocate to the United States to continue his training. In 1953, he arrived in Massachusetts, where he worked at hospitals in Boston, Danvers and Lynn.
A simple economic decision led Castellanos to Augusta in 1958, when he chose a job at AMHI over an opportunity in Alaska.
"Because I didn't have a car to go to Alaska, I came to Maine," he said.
Castellanos relocated to an apartment, and later a house, on the AMHI campus with his wife, Doris, and two daughters, then 10 months and 2 years old.
Soon after moving in, Castellanos said he and his family discovered an anti-AMHI stigma in and around Augusta.
"In some ways, the people in the community were afraid of us," he said. "My kids, they were ostracized in school."
The facility where Castellanos began his work has changed fundamentally.
When he arrived in 1958, AMHI divided patients into male and female sections. Today, Riverview sends a patient to one of four wards, depending on the type of mental illness and legal status.
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5190707.html
Staff photo by Joe Phelan
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
