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Officials, community workers honor former state psychiatric patients buried in New Castle

In a far-flung corner of the state health department’s campus near New Castle, the lives of hundreds of people are being recognized and remembered after more than a century of little fanfare.

776 stubby marble grave markers only bearing a number and arranged in a spiral pattern now have the names of people buried underneath to go with them nearby.

Then known as the Delaware State Hospital, psychiatric patients who died while institutionalized there and had nowhere else to be buried were put here from 1891 to 1983.

Several speakers touched on the importance of recognizing these former patients, saying it helps combat the stigma surrounding those in the cemetery.

Over the years, people who have died in state hospitals were "largely discarded and not seen as human," said Holly Dixon with the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health.

Now called the Delaware Psychiatric Center, patients there helped create the monument just a short walk away from the facility.

Decorated with tiles shaped into flowers, a cerulean blue sky and puffy white clouds, the marker embraces the names of those resting just a few feet nearby.

“A part of what someone is experiencing in the hospital [is] a part of what someone is experiencing that made a flower," said William Slowik, the sculptor behind the monument. "That is definitely what made it special, what made it important.”

Gov. Jack Markell (D) was also among those here for the memorial’s dedication, calling it “another long overdue step in reforming our mental health system.”

“I think it’s a statement that we’re making progress as a society and as a state in really recognizing that we should do all we can to people with mental illnesses can live and work in the community, but I think it’s also a reflection that we have a ways to go,” Markell said.

Those buried include those who had mental illnesses, developmental disabilities, traumatic and acquired brain injuries, seizure disorders, dementia, and substance use disorders, among others.

Three state hospital workers were also intered there – two who died during the 1902 smallpox epidemic and another who died of diphtheria in 1904.

The site also now bears a state historical marker, pointing visitors to the cemetery.

University of Delaware professor Katherine Dettwyler helped research those buried at Spiral Cemetery, telling their stories and the place’s history, which is soon to be unveiled with the Delaware Public Archives.