Rehabilitation of the mentally ill through controlled transitional employment.

Abstract

report to the World Health Organization on "Rehabilitation in I" Psychiatry" throughout the world, Dr. Maxwell Jones describes rehabilitation as "the attempt to provide the best possible community role which will enable the patient to achieve the maximum range of activities, compaL ible with his personality and interests, and of which he is capable" (2, p: 4). Whether one subscribes to this broad definition of the term or describes it in a somewhat more confined manner as "the third phase of treatment," as is done by Dr. Howard Rusk and his associates, it is obvious that rehabilitation of the mentally ill requires a complex of psychiatric and social science approaches. This paper is the report of a pilot project which combines psychiatric, social welfare and industrial elements in serving patients discharged from a mental hospital.Hillside Hospital. Early in 1953, the Hillside Hospital approached the Altro Health and Rehabilitation Services as to the possibility of its accepting mental patients for rehabilitation a t Altro Work Shops.'Hillside Hospital is a voluntary, philanthropic mental hospital which was founded in 1927 for the treatment of ambulatory patients suffering from the functional mental disorders. The patients are about equally divided diagnostically into the psychoneurotic, borderline and early schizophrenic, manicdepressive and involutional groups. They are selected on the basis of having some degree of awareness of the emotional nature of their problems, and their willingness and ability to participate in a psychotherapy-centered program within the confines of a mental hospital. The treatment program is built around individual psychotherapy where patients are seen three or more times week1y;'and they also receive occupational, group and other activity therapy.

Multiple sclerosis program: A model for neuropsychiatric disorders

“…However, there is little record of these workshops employing many persons with MS, and those with mental illness were often rejected. The first sheltered workshop in the United States specifically designed for mental illness was that of Altro Work Shops in the Bronx (Bellak, Black, Abraham, and Miller, 1956). Since that time, sheltered workshops for the mentally ill have flourished both on the grounds of large state hospitals and, with increasing deinstitutionalization, in community-based centers.…”

The Transitional Sheltered Workshop: A Survey

“…able to cope with the emotional and interpersonal factors involved in starting on and continuing a job." (Bellak, et. al., 1956).…”

Altro Health And Rehabilitation Services: Case Study Of A Protected Work Shop

“…Altro Work Shops has been described in detail elsewhere (Black 1956(Black , 1959Bellak, et al, 1956Bellak, et al, , 1960. To summarize, it is built and operated to look, act and "feel" like a factory.…”