Mental Welfare
- Author:
Stanley H. Thornton.
(Superintendent and Secretary, Midland Counties’ Institution, Knowle, near Birmingham).
Many volumes have been written dealing with occupational therapy for those suffering from mental defect. The majority have dealt with indoor occupations, from cloth-weaving to brush-making. Few writers have pub- lished their views on outdoor occupations. The writer, who has had over thirty years’ experience of persons who are mentally weak, will deal with gardening as a healthy and useful occupation.
Ten years ago, the Managing Committee here purchased a ” tumbled- down ” horticultural nursery adjoining the Institution estate. This nursery had about six acres of land, with eight glasshouses. This was an innovation, as the outdoor activities of mental defectives in institutions had previously been limited to elementary jobs, such as sweeping the paths, and generally acting as labourers to the staff engaged on the ornamental gardens. It was recognised that, for many ? years, patients in large mental institutions and colonies had been employed on farms, pig feeding, etc.; some of them had been taught to milk cows, and general dairy work. We planned something more ambitious.
The patients, ranging from 14 to 40 years of age, came here mainly from agricultural districts, and it was thought that, with the help of two skilled gardening instructors, we might attempt not only to supply our own require- ments of bedding plants, flowers, and certain fruit, but also to compete with our products in the open market.
Our efforts have been highly successful, both in the mental improvement of those employed, and from a financial point of view. Thirty patients have been employed 5^ days a week during the Spring, Summer and Autumn, and these show a marked benefit both physically and mentally. Our sales to local residents last year amounted to ^550.
In detail, our methods are: Low grade patients under supervision are engaged in sweeping paths, weeding, generally tidying-up, and acting as labourers to the higher grade. The medium grade undertake general water- ing in glasshouses, tying-in perennials, potato planting, whitewashing, spray- ing, and general digging. The high grade ” prick out ” annuals from the seed pans, plant annuals and perennials, disbud tomatoes and chrysanthemums, lay crazy paving, and a few have even become proficient in budding roses and making floral wreaths.
We have nothing special to report as regards the general planting of our flower beds, herbaceous borders, rockeries, etc., but we consider that our orna- mental gardens have reached a high standard. We believe that our routine popping of the glasshouses may be of general interest. In the Spring, we plant early tomatoes and lettuces, and follow with our seed pans of annuals and perennials, the latter being subsequently ” pricked out ” and hardened in cold frames. Then follows our main crop of tomatoes in all glasshouses, J;0 be succeeded by chrysanthemums. Small brick annexes are being used *?r out-of-season mushroom cultivation.
At convenient periods, the houses are whitewashed, repainted, and re- glazed where necessary?all by patients’ labour, .under supervision. In the Winter months, the gardening boys are engaged in tree felling, wood chopping, and assembling seed trays for the coming Spring.
The subsequent beneficial cfTects on those employed have been so marked that we now provide at least twelve boys to act as garden labourers or assistant gardeners for local residents?and no complaint has been received as to their conduct or the quality of their work. Of course, a small charge is made for sUch labour supplied. We have out on licence, away from the Institution, a number of boys employed on gardening, and their ultimate complete discharge from here is anticipated.
To those interested in the grading of mental defectives, and the giving pf certificates as to mental defect, it is worthy of note that, when these garden- lfig patients are examined by our medical officers or by the statutory visitors, to ascertain the degree of the patients’ defect, the questions put are now: When do you plant lettuce?”, ” What colour is Lobelia?”, “What is the name of your favourite rose?”, “What is the present price of tomatoes?”. Certainly more interesting to the subject that the well-worn questions: ” How rriany pennies are there in 2/6?”, or ” How far is London from Birming- ham?”, etc.
The writer submits that our experiment has proved highly successful in every way. It has provided a healthy and useful occupation for the patients, has produced an abundance of flowers at all times for the Institution wards, has supplied such products as tomatoes and lettuces as a routine issue in the patients’ dietaries, and, owing to the outside sales, has been a financial success.
Up to this point, this article has been a recital of arrangements and operations of an experiment which has proved worth while. It is now suggested that the knowledge thus gained may be handed on to officers in charge of institutions and occupation centres.
The following suggestions may be helpful to those who would like to give the occupation a trial. It is fully appreciated that local circumstances rnust govern such experiments; these circumstances may be, quantity of ground available, whether there arc glass-houses, the amount of money allocated to the purpose, and the skill and knowledge of the instructors.
The industry need not be limited to male patients. Young female mental defectives can adequately deal with light jobs, such as flower seed planting, pricking out, wreath making, etc.
Let us assume that an occupational centre has a small plot of land attached to the buildings. This will have to be roughly dug over, by the patients physically strong enough, on suitable days this Winter. In the Spring, the ground is scarified or raked over, and most of the stones removed. Then the flower seeds are selected, purchased, and planted according to the directions on the packets.
I know of nothing better to start with than the common English Orange Marigold (Calendula). The seed is cheap, it is easy to grow, and the results are excellent. Last Summer, the writer noticed how popular a table decoration this flower had become. It is now an established favourite on cafe and hotel tables.
Part of the ground should be allocated as a bed for perennial seeds, to be planted in late Summer for flowering the following season. Only a very small quantity of seed is required, as the perennial plants can be multiplied by splitting up or by cuttings. If money is available, a few perennials should be purchased as plants rather than seeds.
Your plot is thus ornamental. To make it useful too, grow lettuce and mustard and cress. Little skill is required to grow these. It must be rather interesting to a patient to plant mustard and cress seed in little grooves or furrows marked out in his own Christian name in capital letters, such as JACK- I am sure there will be satisfaction and pride on all sides when a patient is able to return home to his parents with a bunch of marigolds, a lettuce, or a bunch of mustard and cress, which he, or she, has planted, tended, and plucked. Of course, all this is very elementary, but it is a commencement leading to something more advanced.
The possibility of planting window boxes should not be overlooked. As regards this industry in larger institutions and colonies?there is nothing further to suggest than the operations mentioned in the earlier part of this article.
At institutions in which there are schools and workshops, the gardening industry can provide much useful and necessary work for the other sections. Labels of requisite size can be cut from manilla paper or waterproofed card by the juniors, perforated at one end by an automatic machine, brown gummed cardboard eyelets fixed. These are obtainable from more than one prominent paper maker, all ready for use, and the stores staff should be warned to save all their second-hand string. There you have complete and satisfactory labels.
The next item is wooden labels, 6 in. to 8 in. long by i in. wide and 3/16 in. thick?made by the carpentering boys from waste sugar boxes. The paint shop can put on one coat of white priming, and then high grade boys in the fancy articles department can, by means of poker work, burn on the names of the roses,perennials,etc. There is now on the market a cheap electric poker set which can be used without risk to the patients.
The carpenters’ shop can also be employed on assembling seed boxes. The slats for these can be purchased cut into requisite sizes, ready to make up. In addition this shop can provide window boxes and wooden flower boxes from waste wood.
The various schools and shops can thus help the gardeners. In return the gardeners, in addition to providing the usual flowers and produce for the institution, can grow lavender, for use when dry by the fancy articles depart- ment. The gardening boys can also supply pine cones, oak apples, husks of beech nuts, etc., which, in the absence of flowers, can be made by the handi- crafts department into ladies’ posies, table decorations, etc.
In conclusion, the writer expresses the wish that, with clarity rather than brevity, he has in this article sown a few seeds of suggestion on suitable ground, with the hope that the labour has not been in vain, and that there may be a little to harvest in due course by those interested.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.