The Hostel Method for Feeble-Minded Young Men and Women
WINIFRED GIBSON The Surrey Voluntary Association for Mental and Physical Welfare opened Eagle House as a Hostel for feeble-minded girls in May, 1924. At that time, although many large Certified Institutions sent some of their higher- grade patients out to work on leave of absence, and one or two Institutions had even set apart special buildings for the accommodation of such patients, there was, I believe, no other Institution run solely as a Hostel, quite independently of any parent Institution. Eagle House was started as an experiment. It draws its inmates from Certified Institutions all over the country, but once any girl has arrived, there is nothing to tell the outside world, and more especially her immediate neighbours, that she has any connection with an Institution for mental defectives. Mistresses engaging girls are informed of their mental dis- ability, and are warned of the special care and precautions necessary, but the general public of Mitcham, after 6 years, still looks upon Eagle House as an ordinary Girls’ Home. We have found that the higher-grade feeble-minded girl resents, far more than the boy, the fact that she is a certified patient under the Mental Deficiency Acts. Herein lies the value of the independent Hostel. She lives with other girls, all of whom are eidier out at work under normal conditions, or are in definite training for such work, and there is nothing in her environment to remind her that she is connected with an institution for defectives. The inferiority complex is strong in many of our temperamental feeble-minded girls, and anything which tends to remove it is of value.
On the other hand, the fact that our Hostels are not connected with any parent Institution gives rise to certain difficulties. We have no previous know- ledge of our inmates, and have to depend on written reports from Institutions of very varying size, character and efficiency.
In the first two or three years many girls were sent to us who were utterly unsuited to Hostel life. Some were temperamental cases, thoroughly discon- tented with anything and everything that was done for them; others were physically unfitted for sustained work; some were too low-grade mentally to stand any chance of obtaining work in the everyday world, and were only fitted for the sheltered life of an Institution.
Gradually the unsuitable cases have been weeded out, and now the Local Authorities sending cases have a far better understanding of the type of defec- tive likely to do well under Hostel treatment. Such cases should be of stable temperament, without serious physical disabilities, and sufficiently intelligent to be able to perform ordinary household duties without a very great amount of supervision.
The kind of work in which most of the girls are placed must, of course, depend very largely on the neighbourhood in which the Hostel is situated. When Eagle House was first opened a few of the girls secured employment in a neighbouring sweet factory, where the welfare conditions reached a very high standard. They had, however, to compete with young girls of 14-15, and as the chief qualities required of them were extreme quickness and dexterity, very few of our girls were really suited to the work. Also the standard of physical fitness required was too high for most of our girls. One or two were employed on simple, monotonous processes for some time, and then asked to be transferred to work in domestic service. This branch of work which high- grade feeble-minded girls can be trained to perform really well, and in which there is a constant demand for workers, now absorbs all the girls we send out. They receive a thorough training in all branches of domestic work in the Hostel for six months after admission, and are then placed as cooks, parlour- maids, house-maids and general servants. Several have kept the same situation for several years, and six have been placed under the guardianship of their mistresses.
In other parts of the country, especially for instance, in Lancashire, I can well believe that factory work of certain kinds might be found to be a suitable field of employment, but in Mitcham domestic service certainly provides the best outlet.
As soon as she is earning money each girl starts a savings bank account. She is allowed to keep a small amount weekly for pocket-money, her travelling and insurance expenses are paid out of her wages, and a fixed amount is banked, partly in a Post Office Savings account, and partly in the Hostel bank. She can draw on her Hostel bank account for any small expenses, and only touches her Post Office Account in cases of any serious outlay being required, such as purchase of Guides’ uniform, or help being urgently needed by relatives.
All Post Office accounts are held in the name of the Matron as trustee, and money can only be withdrawn with her approval. Royal Hostel for boys and young men was opened in January, 1929. Its organization is entirely similar to that of Eagle House. It has been a happy undertaking from the outset. Possibly feeble-minded young men are less temperamental than young women of the same age and mental capacity; at all events they appear to resent less the fact of their certification under the Mental Deficiency Acts, and once they are provided with congenial work and have a bank balance of their own, they settle down very happily. Our lads have six months training in house and garden work, carpentry and shoe- mending. They are then placed in daily posts in the neighbourhood. The openings found for them have been rather more varied than in the case of the girls. Two are working as farm labourers, one has the care of pigs and poultry, one is a cook in a country inn, several are working as house and garden boys, and one, perhaps the most happily placed of all, is working as a carrier’s assist- ant. One lad is a fairly skilled carpenter. It was not found to be possible to place him in continuous employment of this nature in the neighbourhood, so he is employed partly as the Hostel carpenter, partly in carrying out orders obtained from private individuals or firms. He is paid in exactly the same way as the other lads who are working outside, and is entirely satisfied with this arrangement.
In the case of the boys, we use the Home Safes of one of the large banks for their savings. The boys take great pride in banking their money themselves each week. Each has his own pass-book, and can draw on his savings with the approval of the Superintendent. In addition to saving money themselves, the feeble-minded young men and women in our Hostels are contributing materially to their own support, as a part of their earnings is returned to the Local Authorities who are maintaining them. Those in residential posts are, of course, entirely self-supporting.
The Hostel system, therefore, while making for happiness and self-respect, should also prove an economical method of dealing with the highest-grade of mental defectives in the community.
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