Abstract
From a mental hospital in England, in 1956, contacts were made with industry to obtain contracts for work to be performed in a hut in the hospital grounds. The manufacturers supplied the material and tools, and a female attendant was appointed as supervisor. Patients were paid for each finished article. The unit was restricted to chronic female patients. Eighty-two patients were studied, 30 of whom had been in hospital for more than a year. Thirty-six of the patients in the project recovered sufficiently to be discharged, of those, 30 who had been hospitalized for more than a year, five were discharged. These five had spent 22, 10, 6 1/2, 4 1/2, and 1 1/2 years respectively in hospital before they went to work in the sheltered workshop. All patients improved.
It was felt that such a project supplies reality testing, resocialization, and a monetary incentive to recovery, and that vocational training was not the main factor here. High morale and prestige of those engaged, as in the Hawthorne experiment, were important. Other industrial units in the hospital, e.g. laundry and sewing room, acted as a control to the experiment.
It is suggested that such an idea be tried more extensively in Canadian mental hospitals, and that scientific measurements be made of changes produced.