Kleppur
a psychiatric department of the Icelandic University Hospital
Last New year's eve marked a year since I started working in ward 14 at Kleppur. Kleppur is an old place, the original building was built in 1907 but it has since had adjoining parts contructed unto it, accomodating more patients in cue with the growing population. Recently Icelanders crossed the 300 thousand population barrier, back in 1907 the population of Reykjavik was somewhere between 7-10 thousand. Triple that figure for the total population back in the day.
Kleppur literally means "a rock" in Icelandic, supposedly because it is built in a rocky location by the sea, removed by a few kilometers from the then more populated town of Reykjavik. The name invites a metaphoric intepretation of "a rock of sanity" still standing strong through years of battering by waves of insanity.
Some might point out that Iceland in itself is an island of rock, topping the Atlantic ridge (and tectonically speaking American (not many people know this)), surrounded by dark sea so no matter where you plant a building it will nestle on a rocky outlet.
Today Reykjavik is a bustling place (compared to the rest of the country) but Kleppur remains a closed community, understandably perhaps because fir trees were sown all around that grew tall as expected, contrasted with it is our industrial harbour Sundahöfn and a close by shopping mall comprimised of IKEA, a supermarket and a state liquour outlet.
Kleppur is not the only psychiatric clinic in Iceland. There is also the children and adolescent department and temporary admittal wards ("walking wards") housed elsewhere.
In Kleppur there are approximately 60 patients on average, every ward can hold 12 patients. Most of them are rather seriously mentally ill. My ward is a chronic ward. In a welfare state such as Iceland is, as per the Scandinavian welfare state you might expect people to have a fairly good time. Perhaps not. Who am I to judge? On Fridays we make microwave popcorn, courtesy of Paul Newman, at precisely 8 PM. This is without exception, should our welfare system deliver. On average, on each ward, there is one attending nurse and 5-7 professionally trained or not (like me) medics and a whole slew of psychiatrists, doctors and psychologists during the day but only one attending during evening and nights.
ASCII sketch, character rougly equals 1 metre (3 feet):
NORTH
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| ( ) |
| ( ) |
| ( ) |
|------| ( ) |
| ( ) ( ) 2 floors |
| ( ) ( ) Recreation |
| ( ) 2 floors ( ) & Offices |
| ( ) wards 14 & 15 ( ) |
| ( ) ( ) |
| ( ) ( ) |
| ( ) ( ) |
|--------------------| ( ) ( ) |
| ( ) ( ) |
| ( ) ( ) |
| ( ) ( ) |
| |--------------------------------------------| |-----------------------------|
| | * Walkway | |
| | Main entrance-> | |
| | | |
| | | 4 floors |
| | | Gym & showers |
| | | Wards 11, 12 |
| Offices | | & 13 |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | Parking lot | | Garden
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
|----------------------| | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|-----------------------------|
http://www.firring.com/jabbi/kleppur.jpg - Aerial photograph of Kleppur seen from an western angle (i.e. you are looking at the 4 storey building, the oldest part)