Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-02-25
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
oceupatlonsI Therapy What II 10,
What II Does and What II May
Do When the Training School
Turns Out Workers
BY SARAH ID. LOwRIE

BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE
COME people were discussing not long
| ~ since the possibility Of doing without
| newspapers and getting the news by some
| other medium. l do not know IL they were
contemplating the possibility OF the nnb-
fishers going out Of business. At all events,
they could think of no substitute except
| general gossip, or a series OF daily current
events classes with the one time reporters
and journalists turned lecturers.
In the early eighteenth century, when
there were no newspapers in our sense, such
cities as Paris and London had news
venders Of two sorts---a sort Of public crier.
who cried the news items In the parks and
streets, and the readers Of news letters, who
gathered groups about them in certain ad-
vertiscd spots and read letters from the
provinces or from abroad written for that
kind Of publication. | rather think that our
generation has invented another way Of
spreading the news In our propaganda
lunches and dinners.
do not know just what I think about
those helps over hard places for philan
thropic organizations. Like any form OF
that Is the propaganda does get over to
enough new people to make II worth while
to the organization, but / sometimes think
it Is a dangerous misuse Of hospitality. to
invite ones friends to ones house to feed
and then to bleed them. When the affair
is arranged by a club and the members com.
bine to lunch together once a month and
give the time to the discussion Of some
neighborhood activity about which they
wish to be intelligent, think both means
and end are justihable.
T WENT to a Long Table Luncheon at the
Chestnut Hill Community House last
week of the above, sensible get together
sort, and was very much interested In the
community audience. and also In the neigh.
borhood activity that was discussed-or
rather reported, for there was no discussion.
The Community House is left over from
war work and has proved so useful to the
community that it Is being kept on as a
civic center and is running very well.
patronized cafeteria as wei. The subject
discussed at the February Long Table
Luncheon was the introduction Of occupa-
tional therapy into hospitals and sana.o-
ria. | got good deal besides very we'll
served meal at that luncheon. but ] got
even more coming back to town on the train
from Miss Florence Fulton, who il the dean
Of the Philadelphia School of Occupational
Therapy.
OCCUPATIONAL therapy is the scientific
~ name for what your baby does when he
finds his hands TO play with when he is
lying on his back resting his little self 1t
Is any kind OF hand exercise that can
be pursued with pleasure and with beneficial
results by persons who are weak or who
nre semi -invalids. It Is something 10 keep
the mind pleasantly occupied while the body
is more or less Quiescent
Suppose q physician has a patient who is
suffering from overwork and who needs
something to let his mind down easy. He
can put the man to bed and then call in the
occupational therapist, who would probably
be a pleasant. quiet voiced, youngish woman
with an artists clever, composed hands. She
would interest the restless, tired man in the
making Of something with his hands that
would take sort Of pleasant monotonous
skill. easy to acquire. easy to keep up and
soothing In its very regularity of rhythm.
While he was doing it his mind would be
diverted but not fatRued, and under its
very monotony his muscles would relax and
his nervous system lose its tension.
Suppose, again, the physician had pa.
tent that needed stimulus. The therapist
would then treat the whole situation from
another standpoint. The occupation chosen
for the hands and the eyes and the brain
would intrigue the interest and gently tax
the will power and subtly rouse the energy
by leading up to q climax Of effect.
Suppose. again. the muscles of the patient
were fabby and the mind relaxed, the occu-
patton chosen would be such as to use mus
cular force and require tense concentration.
TNHESE and other treatments for other
i phases Of convalesccnce would be given
by the therapist with the same care for re-
treatment ordered by the doctor. and would
be varied along well. digested plan of pro-
gressiOn.
In other words, the mind OF a patient is
not allowed TO play havoc with the body
during the recovery from an illness or during
q long invalidism. as it so often does when
il is left TO its own devices and to weave
its own sick and discouraged fancies. We
all know how temporarily selfish invalids
can become and how exigcnt about all the
t.l.1 -. &c aie tct.r Nd hatr
restricted lives. Their egotism is generally
the result of q mind too much at leisure, an
activity tethered to too small Il space, with
nothing vital or even occupying to use vital
ity upon.
thing not related to past worries or future
worries an end in itself that is both pleas
ant in the doing and worth nmshing. which
takes only the vitality one can spare from
the body's needs and no more, which con-
meets one little by little with the real ac-
tivities of the outside world. just as the
body is being strengthened TO 90 back and
to go on, then much that battles the doctor
and wears out the family and leaves n rut
Of invalIdism on the patient difficult TO
eradicate would be avoided,
rT1HE Philadelphia School for Training
l. in Occupational Therapy was founded by
the National League OF Woman's Service
and was financed during tho war by the War
Welfare Council. OF course. its reason for
being then was the shell shocked soldier and
the convaescent soldier ana the permanently
crippled soldier The Middle West had tried
il out in it's everyday hospitals and sana-
toria and found that what was good for the
soldier was just as good for the civilian.
Indeed. the new hospitals of the Middle
West include worhroomS for occupational
therapy in all their plans without question.
The doctors accept its aid az matter OF
course. Here it is being tried out tenta-
lively; the very fact that it is a new thing
puts question mark over it. Even the
sDeciaEsts in nervous or mental diseases
have not quite walked up to it so far as
much personal contact goes between the
neurologists and the aIicniSts on one hand
and the school faculty On the other, al
II. h.. namlt tim md nd