The Augusta Courier

BATTEY STATE HOSPITAL IS DOING OUTSTANDING WORK

Rehabilitation
Of Patients
Part
Of
Institution's
Great
Program

Battey State Hospital is forging ahead with a program to rehabilitate its patients. The hospital is not content with merely curing tuberculosis and arresting the progress of that dreaded disease. They recognize that many of the patients must be taught to adequately take care of themselves or else on account of the lack of proper nutrition and on account of low living standards which result in many cases make them repeaters at the hospital.

The management of Battey is of the opinion that it is just as necessary to prepare a patient so that he will be able to live free of tuberculosis as it is to cure him for the time being. Most patients will not be able to return to strenuous duties and very few will be able to do hard manual labor without a recurrence of tuberculosis.

With reference to this program of rehabilitation the hospital paper in its last issue had this to say.

"With the announcement of schools opening in the various classes we are proud to commend the fine group who do not hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity afforded them. Through rehabilitation at Battey, classes have been run almost continuously in crafts, typing, bookkeeping, tailoring, watch repair, shoe repair, and the homemaking department.

"In addition to these there are regular classes held for the patients to do regular student work with a complete high school education afforded them.

"The staff is very efficient and have been doing a wonderful job."

The rehabilitation program serves two good purposes. First, it gives the patient something to do, keeps their minds occupied and keeps them from brooding over their own condition. And second, it gives them an opportunity to equip themselves to hold a job in keeping with their physical condition after they are discharged from the institution.

Keeping the patients busy and their minds occupied is a great aid to cure. Yet it is just as important to keep tuberculosis cured as it is to cure it for the time being. If the patient develops tuberculosis again in a few months after discharge he becomes a repeater at the hospital and at the same time is slowly and surely signing his own death warrant.

Many tubercular patients are lacking in the necessary training and education to make a decent living for themselves and to make the contribution towards the support of their families which is necessary. Many cases of tuberculosis are due to the fact that the patient has experienced too much hard work and at the same time has not had the advantage of proper food and proper care. This condition is due in many cases to the patients inability to earn a sufficient amount to maintain a decent standard of living.

After taking courses in the different skills they are able when they leave the hospital to secure positions which will pay them enough to maintain a decent standard of living.

At Battey they have been giving many courses in the different skills which will enable them to make a living at a trade which will not tear them down physically again and cause them to have active cases of tuberculosis at a later date.

Now the hospital has a regular school which enables every patient to take courses leading to a complete high school education. Of course most patients do not remain in the hospital long enough to get a complete education. Yet a great majority stay there from 18 months to two years and during that time they are able to learn a trade or to add a year or two to their educational qualifications if they do not have as much as a high school education.

This work of training in the skills and the operation of a complete high school is just as important to the patients as is their cure.

It would be shortsighted on the part of the State to merely cure these people temporarily and turn them loose when they are incapable of earning a sufficient amount to properly care for themselves and the members of their family which may be dependent upon them. Because that would mean that they would not secure proper diet and the opportunity to get adequate food and, consequently there would soon be a recurrence of the old case of tuberculosis.

This work of rehabilitation among the patients at Battey is one of the finest things the hospital has done.

After all the greatest treatment for tuberculosis is to keep warm, to keep dry, to have plenty of rest and to have plenty of rich, nourishing, fattening food.

Of course there are many cases which require surgical treatment and other types of treatment. But in most cases proper care and plenty of rich, wholesome, fattening food is the greatest remedy for the cure of tuberculosis.

It takes time and it takes nature working under favorable conditions to stop the ravages of the germ and to build back the destroyed tissues in the lungs.