The Sunland Training Centers were a group of public institutions in Florida whose purpose was to educate and assist the state's mentally retarded children. The Centers were created in 1957 by an act of the Florida State Legislature.
At the time of their creation, only one public institute for mentally retarded children existed in the state: The Florida Farm Colony for Epileptic and Mentally Deficient Children, located in north central Florida near the city of Gainesville. At the time that the Centers were created and the name Sunland adopted, an additional Sunland was in the planning stages. Eventually, seven Sunland Training Centers existed, three in north Florida and the panhandle, in the cities of Marianna, Tallahassee, and Gainesville. One Sunland was located in central Florida in Orlando. Finally, there were three centers in south Florida: those in Arcadia, Fort Myers, and Miami.
Most Sunlands were located on the outskirts of town, several miles from the town center. Reasons for this included both the stigmatization of individuals viewed as defective, and the related goals of colonizing and protecting these patients.
Two Sunlands, the Tallahassee and Orlando locations, were placed in former tuberculosis hospitals. Three of Florida's four public tuberculosis hospitals closed in the 1950's after effective oral antibiotic therapy became available and the disease became largely an outpatient condition. The two hospital-based Sunlands specialized in children with multiple physical and mental disabilities, especially non-ambulatory patients. The other Sunlands were built based on more cottage-like designs on sprawling campuses, with central administrative and medical facilities but with most patients residing in smaller outbuildings.
Initially, there was a high demand for placement of children in the Centers. Most locations attained a census of greater than 1,000 patients, and often there were waiting lists of greater than a year for admission. The centers were viewed as an appropriate and desirable model of care for mentally retarded children in mid-20th century America.
Throughout their lifespan, the Centers struggled with understaffing and underfunding to meet their basic mission. As well, societal changes and a move to normalization in treatment and community based care became the newly accepted standard for care of individuals with all levels and types of disabilities.
The history of the Sunland Training Centers is the history of the care of mental retardation (now called intellectual disability) in the United States. Their course follows closely the trajectory of changes in the knowledge and care of such individuals nationally, albeit often lagging behind states in the northeast by a period of several years.
Legislative changes, advancements in scientific knowledge, and more than a few lawsuits led to the closure of the Sunland Centers. The Centers began to reinvent themselves, taking on different names: Tacachale (Gainesville), The Gulf Coast Center (Fort Myers), and Landmark Learning Center (Miami). Today, only the Marianna facility has retained the name Sunland. All centers also changed their mission from pediatric to adult long-term care by the 1980's. Despite the changes in mission and other improvements, all but two of the original Sunlands eventually closed, often after years of legal challenges to their existence and contrasting pleas from family members to continue their mission.
Today, there are two public long-term care facilities for intellectually disabled adults in Florida: Sunland in Marianna, and Tacachale in Gainesville. The care of children with intellectual disabilities now falls within the responsibility of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD). Separated from the Department of Health and the Department of Children and Families, the APD reports to the Governor. A wide variety of public and private partnerships share the task of meeting the needs of intellectually disabled children. Today, no public facilities exist in Florida to provide residential care for children with intellectual disabilities.
Fifty-four years have passed since the creation of the Sunland Training Centers. Their years of service in the care of children were marked by shortages, political turmoil, and controversy. However, they were also marked by the rapid expansion of medical knowledge, the growth of state and national political advocacy, and advancements in societal awareness of improved care methods for all individuals with intellectual and other developmental disabilities.
Photos (1960's): a group of student nurses at the Tallahassee Sunland facility. A dorm room at the Gainesville Sunland. Brushing teeth at the Tallahassee Sunland. Source: Florida State Photographic Collection.
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