The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-07-02
Vermont Leads in After
Care of POliOmovliHS

| BURLINGTON, July 2.-Vermont is
coming to be recognized more and more
as one Of the foremost states in the nation
lin the work which it is doing for crippled
children through the after-care work in
ipoliomyeIitis which has come to embrace
! a wide field under the able direction of
MISS Bertha L. Weisbrod, who took up
the work in Vermont, under the state
board of health. in the spring of 1919:
1.-THE work has been going on. however,
since 1914 and during that time hundreds
| of crippled children have been helped to
! get about with greater ease and TO ENJOY
/ a fuller life through better physical and
mental development.
| In view of the coming polio clinics
which are to be conducted again this sea
! son. beginning next week. by Drs. Robert
| W. Lovett and Frank r. Ober, Boston
specialists who have been coming into the
state since 1914 to help with this work, 1t
is interesting to note what has beA done
and what plans are being contemplated
! for this work.
Make Them SeIf-SuppOrting.
One of the important innovations which
| the p0liomyelitis after-CaTe program con
templates this season is the addition of a
worker to help the patients in this depart
ment to make themselves sclf-supporung.
Beginning the first of August, Miss Mar
garet Ives, who has had special training
in art and general handicraft work, IS to
take up work in the poliOmyelitiS depart
ment under the state board of health, go
ing into the homes of the older patients,
who are not able to get out into the world
and make a living. Miss Ives will find out
what kind of work the patients are
adapted to and would enjoy doing and
then supply them with the necessary mate
rial and instruction and find Il market for
their work when finished.
Miss Ives's work will be given free to
the patients, but As they sell the products
Of their work, they will pay for their own
raw material. In this way. ii is expected
that everyone of the patients under the
care of this department will be made
self-Supporting, Independent and there
fore happier.
This has been the aim of the polio after
care work throughout. to make the pa
tients happier through increased use of
their bodies and to make them independ-
ent. Self-respecting citizens in spite of
their handicaps. In this it is felt that
the department is proving very success
full. The effects of pOliomyclitis cannot be
cured in a week. or a month, or a year.
1t is a long process. requiring patient and
persevering corporation on the part of
the person being treated. But where the
| instructions of the doctors and workers
have been followed help has come in 9S.5
| per cent of the cases. @
3S7 Under Treatment
| Statistics gathered recently in Vermont
by Miss Catherine ID. Jones. a graduate of
the school of public health. Harvard uni
versty. and Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. from the records Of the work
! since it was started i'm 1914, show that,
of the GIG eases on record, 3S7 are being
/ treated actively at the present time.
! Those not being actively treated have
been dropped for the following reasons
Not needing further treatment, 81; re
fused to take further treatment, J3; died,
16; dropped, II: to New York commits
sion, IL; moved from state, As; cannot be
! located, "a; no treatment prescribed at
| first clinic 60. OF the GO cases on rec
ord as being handled by this department
/ 121 are non-poliO.
! In the cases treated. 60 persons who
could not walk when first examined car
now do so. Only II patients show def
mite loss. but seven of these did not fol
/ low treatment.
! At the present time. 141 patients are
wearing braces or splints; 40 are wearing
Corsets; 16 are wearing plaster jackets
! two are wearing leather jackets; III
have orthopedic corrections made to their