Industrial Therapy

              TEN D The Shreveport Journal, Friday, Aug. 6, 1971 The Shreveport Journal, Friday, Aug. 6, 1971 D ELEVE1
By Merrilee Leatherman industrial therapy
Each weekday in Shreveport a group of men and women hear
their alarms go off and begin readying themselves for an active
workday.
There may not seem to be anything unusual about this, but there
is. This is the first time these particular men and women have
worked regularly in one, two or, in some cases, three years.
NO, THEY AREN'T physically handicapped, but they are
handicapped in another very real sense. These are people who — for
one reason or another — have found that the everyday pressures of
life were too much for them.
Personal problems, social pressures and emotional anxieties took
their toll. For many, a series of stays at mental hospitals and months
of psychiatric care became their way of life. As they grew better,
many tried to re-enter the everyday job world. Then a new kind of
hell set in — they found that they couldn't keep a job. It wasn't
because they weren't qualified to do the work; it simply was a result
of being away from the everyday pressures of society too long.
SO.AGAIN, they dropped out into a world of their own, until they
were ready to try again and, more often than not, to fail again.
What was wrong? Why couldn't they go back to work and stay
with it? After all, it sounds easy enough.
But stop and think a minute. Pretend that you've taken a year's
vacation to a remote place and then returned to a new job. Or
pretend that you've been in the hospital for a few months. Would it
really be easy to just sit down and pick up were you left off?
MORE THAN LIKELY most of us would find we would have
quite a bit of readjusting to being back in a work situation after so
many months of idleness. But, we're the lucky ones. Sooner or later
we train ourselves to accept our job — we readjust to being back in
the so-called "real world."
Readjustment is difficult and, for the emotionally ill, it
sometimes can be unbearable. The problem is not a new one, but
now, the Shreveport Mental Health Center under the direction of Dr.
Norman Mauroner, thinks it has found a solution.
IT'S A PILOT program — believed to be the first of its kind in
the South — and1 it's called Industrial Therapy.
Five days a week, adults of all ages are finding a new life
opening for them as they enter the doors of the Junior Achievement
building on Southern Avenue, which has loaned its workshop to the
Mental Health Center for the project.
COMING FROM ALL walks of life and referred to the program by
physicians and other medical sources, these people are again using
their imaginations and having fun being involved with the production
of useful items. And that means all the way from designing the
product to building it and, sometimes, to selling it. (All monies
earned provide bus transportation for those who need it.)
The patients are enthusiastic about the program, says Dr.
Mauroner. Some of the workers, for instance, are ones who refused
to consider going to the Mental Health Center for treatment of any
kind.
BUT NOW they are busy at work producing cat scratching posts,
bird, cat and dog houses of all sizes — you can get them all the way
from "it'll do" to a fully carpeted canine mansion — dog carrying
cases; and now, personalized bed1 frames for — you guessed it —
water beds!
At the Junior Achievement building, the individual finds himself
in a workshop locale where he is no longer treated merely as a
patient. He has responsibilities which increase as he is ready to
assume them. Most important, he is actually working — with but one
difference from the regular job: Here he is producing at his own rate
of speed.
SHIRLEY KONDRAT, the industrious American Indian who serves
as the occupational therapist for the Mental Health Center, says all
the patients take pride in their work. A good! cat post can take as
long as two hours to make, because the patients are after quality and
not quantity. Remember, they're building confidence and regaining
their self-esteem with each item, and that's a pretty tough team to
beat!
After three hours of work the group meets with Stanley Smith,
second-year LSU-S medical school student who heads the workshop,
to discuss any personal anxieties or problems they are finding
difficult to cope with on the job.
WITH THE Industrial Therapy service, says Dr. Mauroner, there
is now a way to bridge the gap from a non-functioning to a
functioning individual conditioned to work. The main goal, of course,
is that the patients eventually will be able to leave the group and go
back into society to hold responsible jobs.
Both Smith and Dr. Mauroner agree that without Junior
Achievement's cooperation the program couldn't have gotten under
way as quickly as it did. The facilities at the Mental Health Center
were inadequate for such a program, but, more importantly, the
Junior Achievement building provides a place where patients are
away from a treatment locale where they would be regarded strictly
as patients.
Continued on Page 19
Readjustment to work — a dilemma for many mental patients. Now
the Shreveport Mental Health Center may have found a solution with
its pilot program called Industrial Therapy. Robert Wright, top photo,
maintenance engineer at the center, does all cutout work. Bottom
left photo, personalized bed frames for water beds are being made
and can be ordered in vinyl, fake fur or what-have-you. Shirley
Kondrat, occupational therapist, uses her American Indian know-how
to show patients, below, the intricacies of psaking cat scratch posts,
and at tar right a man adds the final touches to a dog carrying case.
(Photos by Lawrence Lea)