History Note
The Welsch Case, 1972
Expert testimony spelled
doom for Minnesota institutions
by Luther Granquist
Thirty-five years ago this
week three national experts on habilitation of persons with mental
retardation reviewed conditions at Cambridge State Hospital. Gunnar
Dybwad, James Clements, and David Rosen described what they saw to
Federal Judge Earl R. Larson in September 1973 in the Welsch case,
a class action on behalf of persons with mental retardation in Minnesota’s
state hospitals. They convinced him that all persons, regardless of the severity
of their disability, could grow and develop if provided needed training in an
appropriate environment. Judge Larson ordered changes to improve conditions.
Later orders in that case contributed to the closing of all the state institutions
in Minnesota for persons with developmental disabilities.
Gunnar Dybwad, an early leader of the National Association for Retarded
Children (now the Arc), had seen institutions around the world. In
Welsch and other similar cases, he taught judges the history of confining
persons with mental retardation in institutions and emphasized the
potential these persons had. Jim Clements, a medical doctor from
Georgia, taught lawyers around the country how to try these institution
cases. Dave Rosen, who helped develop community alternatives in Michigan
for persons with mental retardation, provided down to earth direction
on how to change a system. The legacy of their visit to Cambridge
can be seen today—empty spaces where “cottages” once
housed 1955 people. ![]()
Each
month of 2008, Access Press will feature an important person or
persons in disability history: local, regional or national.
