5 By BILL HAWKES

Briefly their history is this:
In 1959 within the Bristol
Mental Hospital, there were a
few patients in scattered fac-
tory rooms engaged in simple
contract work for outside em-
ployers. This work was con-
sidered rehabilitation work
and consisted of jobs such as
assembling ball-point pens
and making boxes. A delegate
to the Bristol Trade Council
raised the question of mental
patients working for outside
employers and charged that
they were being exploited. A
delegation of trade union of-
ficials visited the hospital, saw
the work being done, and
were able to report back to
their members that the work
was of practical therapeutic
value and that no profit was
being made out of the labour
of mental patients. However,
the questions raised at the
Bristol Trades Council meet-
ing had hit the headlines of
the local paper and the re-
ports which followed on the
work being done helped to
generate local interest in re-
habilitating the mentally ill.

TEMPEST

The result of this “tempest
in a tea-pot” was the forma-
tion of the Industrial Therapy
Organization (Bristol) Ltd.,
with church, civic, medical,
industrial, and trade union
representatives on the board
of directors,

The LT.O. was formed to
provide medically and indust-
rial supervised employment
training under conditions as
close as possible to ordinary
factory conditions as a second
stage towards complete in-
dustrial rehabilitation. The
first stage is medical and ther-
apeutic work done within the
hospital itself. The aim is to
provide facilities for work
outside hospitals, for long
stay patients who are consid-
ered to have a prospect of
getting back to work after
years of unemployment and/
or of hospital residence,

Pe pe

DONATIONS

It acquired an old school
and converted it into a fac-
tory, much of the money re-

uired was raised by private
tions (the Transport and
General Workers Union pro-
vided a canteen). The author-
ities agreed to release nurs-
ing staff from the hospital to
supervise at the factory, other
supervisors are provided by
- various sympathetie employ-
ers who provide contract
work for the factory. Some
the firms in Bristol have
vided the necessary ma-
as well as work, The
at the factory are

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

UNITED KINGDOM REPORT

BILL HAWKES, a member of Local 1-85 1WA and Camp Chairman at the Franklin River
Division of MacMillan, Bloedel and Powell River, who left last April to spend six months in
the United Kingdom on a bursary offered by the Imperial Relations Trust, has submitted a
Series of articles describing conditions as he found them in his travels. The following is the

fourth article in the series.

paid wages which gives them
the experience of handling
money, for some it is a new
experience, for others, who
have been in the hospital for
years, the right to have and
spend money encourages them
to once again make decisions
of their own.

CAR WASH

The I.T.O. found that much
of the work coming into the
factory was women’s work,
so in October 1960, it opened
a five minute car wash; this
provides work for 14 to 16
men at £8 to £9 ($24 to $27)
per week. This car wash
makes a small profit which is
used to help the factory, it
also demonstrates that psy-
chiatric patients can earn
their living without subsidy
if appropriate work can be
provided. About 100 cars a
day go through the car wash,
this brings many of the citi-
zens of Bristol in direct con-
tact with mental patients and
they are able to see that
schizophrena are also “or-
dinary” and do not have to
be shunned. Four years later
1.T.O. took over the lease of a
service station and ran it so
successfully that the petrol-
eum company is going to
modernize it and put in a car
wash.

WORKSHOP

In 1961 the I.T.0. opened
a shelter workshop at its fac-
tory for 20 seriously disabled
persons, the patients get paid
wages. It is supported by the
Ministry of Labour which
make up 75% of the losses to
a maximum of £240 ($720)
per place a year. At first the
other 25% of the loss was
contributed by the Nuffield
Provincial Hospital Trust, this
proportion of the loss has now
been taken over by the local
authority. This sheltered
workshop, as an extension of
the L'l.0. piece work tactory
was fairly easy to set up.
However, sheltered work-
shops are generally very diffi-
cult to establish, they require
a large capital outlay and the
many complications in setting
up an organization that is
required to buy raw materi-
als, manufacture goods and
sell the finished product

BILL HAWKES

mean that voluntary organiz-
ations are unlikely to try to
establish sheltered workshops
on a scale that would be
necessary to make a real im-
pact. ‘the Ministry of Labour
is not equipped to deal with
these specialized illnesses,

PIECE WORK

As the purpose of the
LT.O.’s piece work factory
was to provide industrial
training rather than perma-
nent employment for mental
patients and as their shelter-
ed workshops can only take
20 patients an alternative to
re-employ had to be found.
In 1961 the organization had
the opportunity to send a
group of patients into a local
factory to work at piece work
rates on a contract job which
had previously been done in
their own factory. Under the
supervision of a nurse twelve
patients earned £2.12s.6d.
($7.87) each during their first
week. At the end of twelve
weeks they were earning
£6.12s.0d. ($19.80) each per
week which is getting close to
an economic wage in the U.K.
The organization then asked
the Ministry of Labour to al-
low groups of patients to en-
ter factories under the super-
vision of a nurse on the basis
that they would come under
the same conditions as they
would in a sheltered work-
shop, in other words the Min-
istry paying 75% of the loss.
In September 1963 the Minis-
try agreed to a one year pilot
scheme.

The firm pays the LT.O.
for the goods produced. I.T.O.
in turn pays the patients the
minimum re-employ rate of

wages, if they earn more than
the minimum they are paid
their actual earnings. Making
up wages, nursing supervi-
sion, and administrative ex-
penses cost more than the
scheme makes so 75% of the
loss is made up by the Minis-
try of Labour and the re-
maining 25% by the Local
Authority. This costs about
£2 ($6.00) per place per
week whereas sheltered
workshops cost about £10
($30.00) per place -per week,
also there is no capital outlay
and none of the industrial
problems of a sheltered work-
shop.

Apart from the economic
advantages it is considered
both medically and socially
better to provide work among
normal people than to gather
the mentally ill all under one
roof. Out of the first 45 pa-
tients placed in factories
seven have been able to drop
out of the plan and become
employed as individuals.
Since then they have been
able to place 150 patients in
individual employment some
of whom have been in mental
homes for many years.

The I.T.O. felt that along
with economic rehabilitation
it was necessary to provide
living accommodation for the
better patients away from the
hospital as a step in prepara-
tion for final discharge into
community. Most of the pa-
tients involved have either
lost contact with their rela-

tives or are unwanted by
them.

OLD HOTEL

It is felt that after
years of living in large wards
it is important to give pati-
ents the feel of living in an
ordinary house. With this
end in view the local housing
authority agreed to build six
standard council houses -on
the hospital property but re-
moved by a main road from
the hospital itself. However,
due to a great many complica-
tions these houses still have
not been completed. The
LT.O. got tired of waiting for
the promised houses and
bought an old hotel. It didn’t
have the money to buy it but
the Transport and General
Workers Union lent it
£10,000 ($30,000) at a nomi-
nal rate of interest. It be-
lieves that it can provide
board and room for the pati-
ents for between £4 to £5
($12 to $15) a week. There
are 19 patients staying there

with one nurse, the other staff
(cleaning, etc.) are patients
from the hospital. They are
of course paid wages for their
work. The patients staying
there are earning their own
living, paying for their lodg-
ing out of their wages, and
travelling to and from work
unaided and unsupervised.

This way by a series of
steps — in hospital, through
the Ministry of Labour,
through the Local Authority
and/or through the I.T.O., the
maximum economic ability of
a mental patient is developed.
Similarly the maximum do-
mestic and social develop-
ment is reached.

This plan-has been copied
by at least five other areas in
Great Britain and has attract-
ed expert visitors from many
other countries. Apart from
the obvious advantages of
this plan there is also the ef-
fects it has on the commun-
ity’s attitude towards the
mentally ill. After all, it is
pretty difficult to be afraid of
the men who wash your car
every week or the men and
women with whom you work.

SWEDISH VISIT

EFORE I left Stockholm

I visited two trade union

schools, one run by the L.O.,

the other by Sweden’s largest
union, the Metalworkers.

The L.O. School was built
in 1953 at a cost of $3,000,000
and runs all year with stu-
dents taking courses from two
weeks to three months in

length. There are also a few

six-month courses ‘but these
are not usual.

The school is built in the
country several miles from
Stockholm and is residential,
single rooms for the students
and a large cafeteria to feed
them. They are expected to
look after their own rooms
and the small lounge in each
of the sleeping units.

COURSES

For most of the courses the
L.O. pays the students lost
time wages as well as provid-
ing the teaching and accom-
modation, Sometimes they
will run a special course for
a particular union, in which
case the union requesting
the course will pay the cost,
Since the school was built
slightly over 65,000 trade un-

ionists have attended classes
there.

Besides the _ residential
school the L.O. holds week-
end and day schools, and pro-
vides correspondence courses.
This gives them the impres-
sive total of 50,000 trade un-

To Be Continued