TRAINING WAR AMPUTEES.

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23881, 25 February 1943, Page 6

TRAINING WAR AMPUTEES.

CENTRES IN FOUR CITIES

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, February 24.

Facilities for the treatment and vocational training of amputees from the present war have been augmented in New Zealand by the Rehabilitation Board. The chairman (Mr M. Moohan) reported to a meeting of the Rehabilitation Council that the board, in addition to purchasing the business of the McKay Co-operative Orthopaedic Society, Ltd., had arranged for the establishment of an up-to-date vocational guidance centre in Wellington for the training of disabled servicemen. Negotiations were in hand for the purchase of suitable sites for similar centres in Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Provision had been made for the care and training of blinded servicemen at the Jubilee Institute for the Blind, at Auckland.

Up to the end of January, 207 amputee servicemen had returned to New Zealand, while 34 more were demobilised from the armed forces in the Dominion. making a total of 241. Of these totals, one returned man and one demobilised man have lost both legs above the knee, and two returned men have lost both legs below the knee. Twenty-three returned men have lost the left leg above the knee, and 23 have lost the left leg below the knee. Two demobilised men have suffered similar loss. Seventeen and four respectively have lost the right leg above the knee, and 14 and one, respectively, have lost it below the knee. Ten returned men have lost the right foot, and four the left foot. Eighteen men have lost the left arm and 24 and one, respectively, have lost the right arm. The remainder have either lost a hand or fingers and toes. Employment Position The present employment position of amputee servicemen is satisfactorily established. Thirty-six are established but still under surveillance, 17 have returned to military service, and six are not yet established. Close on 900 psycho-neurotic servicemen from overseas have reached the employment stage. Of these, 408 have been satisfactorily established, 166 have been established but are still under surveillance, 29 have returned to military service, and 282 have not yet been established. Ten neurasthenic cases are receiving light recuperative work, such as vegetable growing and weeding flower and shrub plots, in pleasant surroundings at a centre in the South Island. They are making satisfactory progress, but it has not yet been determined how much recuperative work will be necessary to fit them for industrial employment. . The authorities have decided not to disclose the locality of their recuperative employment, to save them from embarrassing public observation. Morning tea, light lunch, and afternoon tea are provided free of cost by the National Service Department. The experiment promises so well that negotiations are in hand for extending the scheme to other centres as- the need arises. _