ings alone, and this building and renovation program is still very
much alive.

This fall or winter will see the final demolition of the old Centre
Building at Spring Grove — the building constructed nearly 100 years
ago when the patients were removed from Baltimore City — the build-
ing that became a symbol of all that was wrong or lacking in what
we were doing. The new buildings we are erecting, and the old ones
we are remodeling, are carefully designed to meet the demands of
modern treatment methods. The new buildings that honor me by
bearing my name, one at the Eastern Shore State Hospital and the
other at Spring Grove, designed for aged and infirm patients, are
pleasant, cheerful buildings of a style that delights the eye.

So much for the building program. What about the treatment in
our State mental hospitals? You know, I am sure, that we have four
general mental hospitals — Crownsville, Eastern Shore, Springfield and
Spring Grove. In addition, there are two hospitals for the retarded,
at Rosewood and Henryton, and the Clifton T. Perkins State Hospital
as a maximum security institution. We have consistently improved
our treatment services during the past several years, with the result
that more and more long-term patients are being returned to their
homes and the average length of hospitalization has been steadily
reduced. Only a few years ago, the average length of hospitalization
was considerably more than one year. Now, the newly admitted
patient can reasonably expect to return to his home within three to
four months, and more than one of every five patients stays no more
than a month.

A greater number of patients are being treated in our hospitals
each year, and yet, because of the shortened periods of hospitalization
and increased number of discharges, we have seen a steady decline
in the average daily patient population. On an average day in 1959,
the first year of my tenure as Governor, we had 9, 000 patients in our
hospitals. On an average day now we have only 8, 200.

Today, we calculate the cost for each patient discharged at slightly
more than $3, 100. Ten years ago that cost was a little more than
$5, 200. I hesitate to put a price tag on anything as important as
mental health, but certainly we can say that the price seems to be
right when we give patients better treatment at lower costs. And the
decline in per-patient cost is even more impressive and satisfying when
we consider the fact that it has occurred during a period of constantly
rising costs for most goods and services.

Moves have been made during the past few years to improve and

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