| By 4 ‘ JANUARY 1973 ————————————— eee "Ase Dy ,\ Ct - mete | REHABILITATION SYMPOSIUM PLANNED FOR APRIL 23-27 Successful rehabilitation of a worker who has been injured in an industrial accident is vir- tually impossible without the co-operation of labour and management, according to Kevin Maher, director of rehabilitation services for the B.C. Workmen’s Compensation Board. “This is the reason we are extending a special invitation to representatives of both unions and management to attend the International Symposium on the Rehabilitation of the In- dustrially Injured,” Mr. Maher said. Mr. Maher is chairman of the symposium, to be held at the Bayshore Inn in Van- couver, April 23 to 27, 1973. Joe Morris, executive vice- president of the Canadian Labour Congress, will present labour’s view of its role in rehabilitation. Ian Barclay, president of B.C. Forest Products Limited, will present management’s view of its role. The Hon. William S. King, B.C.’s minister of labour, will speak on behalf of the provincial government. The symposium, which will deal with both vocational and medical aspects of rehabilitating injured workers, will be hosted by the Work- men’s Compensation Board of B.C. It is being held in co- operation with Rehabilitation International, an organization with membership in 55 countries. Sessions will be held on five industrial disabilities posing the greatest challenge to rehabilitation: back injuries, spinal cord injuries, am- putations, industrial diseases and brain damage. Twenty- nine internationally recognized specialists will present papers; at the symposium. KEVIN MAHER Vocational rehabilitation — or the process of helping the injured worker back to his or her job in the community — cannot be left entirely to the experts, Mr. Maher said. Medical science has made great progress in physical rehabilitation, but vocational rehabilitation is largely the responsibility of the employer and the worker’s fellow em- ployees. The ability to stand on their own feet and support a family is rated highly by most workers. And this is what in- jured workers usually want to do as quickly as possible after the accident. They don’t need any favors, Mr. Maher said, but they do need understanding and the opportunity to demonstrate their capacity to.compete for employment in spite of a physical or mental hadicap. This is why we are inviting representatives of management and labour to attend this symposium, both have an important contribution to make, Mr. Maher said. A special day and a half session on the problems associated with back _ in- juries will be of particular interest to labour and management personnel. There will also be a session which will compare the rehabilitation programs of Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Eastern Mediterranean. A session has also been planned on the role of public relations in rehabilitation. Other highlights will in- clude: @ The Consumer’s View — a presentation by a workman who suffered .a double am- putation in an industrial ac- cident. @ Steel Implants Beat Paralysis — 15 patients with paraplegia resulting from lower spinal injury were able to walk with mechanical aids, a result not previously obtained with other treatments. Presentation to be made by Dr. Marian Wiss of the Stoleczne Centrum Rehabilitacji in Konstancin, Poland. @ Aids for the Physically Disabled — a discussion of OK ... come back here and I’’Il explain about standing on logs too near to th’ turn. -.. iS ‘’a cup of tea” if you are wearing a life jacket, but it wasn‘t always that way. Before 1957, log boom workers drowned annually in B.C. In that year the Workmen’s Compensation Board ruled that boom men must wear life jackets. Since that time drownings of boom men have been drastically reduced. You don‘t really have to fall off a log to see that life jackets are a good idea for anyone around water anytime. housing problems, alterations to work environment, hand controls, transportation problems for the disabled by Ellis Reida, executive director - of Rehabilitation International U.S.A., and Dr. Georges Lambert of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. @ Work is Good Therapy — presentation by-Tore Aaen of the National Iranian Society for Rehabilitation of the Disabled in Teheran, Iran on the self image and the ad- justment of the disabled to the work situation. For a copy of the brochure outlining the complete program, or any other in- formation regarding ~ the symposium, write to the In- ternational Rehabilitation Symposium, Workmen’s Compensation Board, 5255 Heather Street, Vancouver 13, B.C. ‘The registration fee of $25 includes admission to all plenary sessions, luncheons during the four days of the conference and the closing banquet. Acceptance of registrations received after April 1 cannot be guaranteed. ‘DOMTAR PLANTS SCORED 0} anna Jaquin Feijo, 48, put on his safety harness, went down a 16- foot ladder inside a 24-foot stone crusher. The harness was attached to a 24-foot rope. Feijo was trying to loosen shale which had hardened. He slipped into the hopper. He was caught as if in quicksand. Seven men tried to release him. For three hours they worked to free him. In three hours he was dead. The Cooksville plant where Feijo, a Portugese immigrant, worked was owned by Domtar Construction Materials Limited. This was not the first fatal accident at the Domtar plant. The Peel County coroner, Martin Donkin, said, ‘“Domtar Construction Materials Ltd. is the leader in our community in the production of cadavers.”’ The coroner’s jury recom- mended that Domtar and all other companies with similar operations review their proce- dures for cleaning hoppers so that no man need go into them. This was the advice of Jim Perna, Canadian director of the United Glass and Ceramic Workers, which has’ the con- tract at Domtar. Shocked by the tragedy, Perna told the jurors that no employee in any industry should be forced to go inside a bin or hopper. ‘‘In these times of technological ingenuity it should be quite possible to pro- vide some kind of mechanism outside the hopper which would make entry by a human being unnecesary.”’ This is not the first time that an accident of this kind has occurred. A man was killed about 13 years ago in the same plant. The jury’s recom- mendations were ignored by the company. “When a jury makes recom- mendations to improve safety,” Perna said, “they should be adopted by the factory inspection branch of ° the labour department.” On July 31, 1971, a Domtar worker was killed after enter- ing a stone-grinding machine to re-start it. LIGHTER SIDE A Vancouver Island mill operator’s wife told us that she has a girl friend who is so ugly that the first thing she does when she goes to a beauty parlor is get an estimate. * ci Pete the Prince George bartender says that a guy who thinks that marriage is a 50/50 proposition doesn’t know wo- men or fractions.