Despite this progress, the state Legislature approved nearly 2,000 new positions for state hospitals in 1966. Again, the media played a role in initiating change.
Sam Newlund, whose 1965 exposé in the Minneapolis Tribune uncovered serious deficiencies in the state hospital system, re-visited the topic in 1967. The follow-up series reported that, even with the new staffing levels, staff turnover rates at Faribault was 100 percent. Aides could not live on the low pay and many had to work double shifts.
Overall, turnover in the state hospital system was 35.7%.
A 1967 expose revisited an earlier series only to find that little had changed.