The state's longest-running spook house is under way again - at the Utah State Hospital, a 343-bed facility for people with severe mental illness.
The hospital's 25-year-old Haunted Castle last year attracted 27,000 and raised more than $100,000 for hospital recreational programs and equipment.Yet some fear the event perpetuates myths about mental illness.
Pat Baker, the hospital's family advocate, concedes that the Halloween fund-raiser may be therapeutic for the patients who help build and haunt the castle. But she still opposes it.
"It just perpetuates the stereotype that mental illness is not treatable, that the people there are dangerous," says Baker, whose daughter underwent treatment there for nearly a year. "It's fodder for the stigma that's attached to people who have a mental illness."
The Salt Lake mother's worst fears were confirmed recently when she heard a radio disc jockey refer to the "real psychos" at Utah State Hospital's Haunted Castle.
"It is a sensitive issue and one that we are continuing to review," says Mark Payne, hospital superintendent.
Yet hospital officials have no doubt that the Haunted Castle is good for the patients and staff of the hospital.
Many health-care professionals not affiliated with the hospital agree.
"A lot of mental patients are just sad and depressed, and maybe this will cheer them up," says California clinical psychologist Robert Butterworth. "The problem with mental patients is they don't feel a part of the community. This is a way they can integrate themselves and feel they're part of things."
Rudy Johansen, a social worker attached to the psychiatric units at the Veterans Administration Medical Center, said the Haunted Castle also may be exorcising public fears about mental illness.
"Mental illness is not that big frightening bogeyman out there. It's an illness," he says.
Over the years, Utah State Hospital has been treating patients with increasingly severe mental illnesses. That means a decreasing number of patients who can interact with the public once the castle opens.
Most patients who volunteer for the project are involved in building the castle inside the historic amphitheater on hospital grounds. Of the approximately 100 people who operate the castle each night during its nine-day run, only about a dozen are patients. The rest are hospital staff and community volunteers.
The hospital screens the patient volunteers before they are allowed to help build the castle set.