# Remembering the LaFayette Clinic. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 27, 2016, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-the-lafayette-clinic/761019 "2016-07-27T11:03:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-the-lafayette-clinic/761019/1 "2016-07-27T11:03:55Z")
I admit, it is an obscure reference, if you’re not from Michigan. So I will fill you in. There was this wonderful mental hospital in Detroit, LaFayette Clinic. Yes, it was a public hospital. But it was a cut above the rest. And it was on the foreground of research into treatment of mental illnesses. New medicines and cutting-edge therapies were being studied there. You may have not have heard of it. But there is a good chance your doctor did. It had nationwide fame for the research it did alone. Then in 1992, Republican Governor of Michigan, John Engler, suddenly closed it. It was a bargain for the residents of Michigan, something like just a dollar a year IIRC. And the good it did in this world was immeasurable. But Engler just closed it. People still wonder why. The way he did it hurt a lot of the families that had patients there too, I remember. Having the police just round up the patients, often not even telling their family members where they were taking them. Anyways, Gov. Engler was clearly a sociopath. But this is not the “Pit”, so I am not going go into that. I was just wondering if anyone even remembers it, or even heard of it outside of Michigan, for that matter. I did a Google search for the story. But all I could find was [this](https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/98323674/). You can do your own Google search, if you want. Just look up “closure of LaFayette Clinic Detroit”, if you want. As I said, it was all tragic, very tragic. I think the loss, to research alone, is still felt to this day by patients and their families. :)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-the-lafayette-clinic/761019/2 "2016-07-27T12:45:55Z")
Let me guess… largely “urban” patient base? ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-the-lafayette-clinic/761019/3 "2016-07-27T20:48:10Z")
I remember it. Also Northville and Eloise. It would have closed with or without Engler in office. Sign of the times. When was the last time you have seen a freestanding psych hospital? Or even a psych unit in a general hospital? mmm ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remembering-the-lafayette-clinic/761019/4 "2016-07-28T16:47:10Z")
Yeah, it happened in California, too, though I don’t remember just when it started. I suppose it was a nationwide thing. There was a famous, huge hospital in Camarillo which combined services for the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled, and those addicted to drugs or alcohol. The buildings were of a good-looking Spanish-California architectural style. It closed completely down and was eventually refurbished as a community college.