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82
In March, -1928, I reported to the Public Health Committee on the
question of establishing at the Dispensary a Handicraft class for
unemployed patients as a method of after-care treatment, not as a
means of earning a livelihood.
In the autumn of this year a beginning was made, and Miss Forth,
the teacher of the class, gives a report on the subject elsewhere.
Miss Forth is a London County Council Instructress. The County
Council provide a teacher for such classes when a sufficient number of
pupils is obtained, and where a small fee (which is reduced according
to individual circumstances) is paid. One of the conditions laid down
is that patients in an infectious condition, i.e., who have tubercle germs
in the expectoration, are not to be admitted.
This reduces to a small figure the number of patients who can be
admitted, and we have found that several of these being in pretty good
health leave the class to take up work, permanent or temporary, giving
irregular attendances and unsatisfactory working of the class. This
condition excludes the very type of patient to whom the class would
be a great help physically by providing an interest and occupation in
the rather hopeless and apathetic condition into which they tend to fall
when unfit for or unable to get employment.
The risk to a teacher from such, who could be selected, careful
patients, is really trifling, and I hope that steps will be taken in this
matter with a view to having the condition withdrawn as long, of course,
as the teacher understands the position and is willing to carry on the
work.
It has been suggested that a patient already trained in such work
might act as instructor to a class, but such a person would lack the
experience and knowledge necessary for successful teaching, and
would not have the range of subjects to interest different patients that
a trained teacher has.
Yours faithfully,
N. M. Donnelly,
Tuberculosis Officer.