Learning self-dependence at Templeton training school

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32494, 2 January 1971, Page 13

Learning self-dependence at Templeton training school

(By

L.J. RILEY)

Within a mile or two of one of the main industrial areas of Christchurch is a group of small workshops which have a special place in the community and a contribution—small though it is—to make to commerce.

In some ways, the employees are much like thousands of other New Zealanders. They take a pride in their productivity, experience a sense of achievement, and have the same feelings of success and failure as most other people.

The little workshops are part of the huge 200-acre complex which is Christchurch’s Templeton Hospital and Training School for the mentally subnormal. The people who work in them are among the more fortunate of the hospital’s patients. They take part in what is loosely termed basic industry. This consists of making just about anything from electrical fittings to Christmas cards. The work is simple, and often repetitive. Engaged on the easiest of the workshop tasks are people who regard them as their occupation. These people are non -educable, and may never progress to anything else. But the important factor is that they are doing something with their lives. Their hands and their minds are occupied. They have a sense of purpose.

Tasks graded As Templeton Hospital’s Medical Superintendent (Dr. J. C. Marshall) puts ifc “the mind needs stimulation to develop at all levels. “Some of the people we are training now would have been written off 10 years ago as untrainable.”

For a percentage of the workshop employees at Templeton. basic industry represents not a means within itself, but a means to an end.

Their activities provide work situational training, and the controls, disciplines and routines found in the outside world.

The tasks are graded in accordance with the patient’s ability. For a certain number, the work is arranged so that their individual capacities can be fully extended. This can, and does, lead in some cases to a happy and successfuL conclusion the patient finally graduates to employment in the outside world.

The hospital has discharged 50 patients in this way during the last five years. It does not sound very many, but when the task involved in bringing each individual to this level is considered the number is significant indeed. Templeton also has a number of resident patients who go out to work on nearby farms and in industry. These people have a source of income of their own, and pay board to live in one of the hospital’s villas. This scheme, made possible with the advent of the new Health Act in April of this year, gives patients a sense of responsibility and an understanding of the use of money.

Reliable workers Says Dr Marshall: “We have had very little trouble with this arrangement. Employers have found the patients to be willing and reliable workers —in fact, some have asked for more.” Templeton has built up good contacts with the Christchurch business community not only in this sphere, but in the supply of work for its own small workshops. The firms supply the components—and the hospital puts them together. The products range through electrical fittings and cable spools to cardboard boxes and Christmas packaging. In a five-day week, 10 patients can produce 4500 electrical fittings, a production level which speaks volumes for the ability of the hospital’s team of training officers.

Two of the hospital’s workshops are set aside for printing, both by letterpress and by the screen process. Here, patients turn out a wide range of printed items, including Christmas cards,' forms for use by Government departments, training

aids for use within the hos-pital-even the hospital’s own internal newspaper. Dr Marshall believes in Introducing the greatest possible diversification of tasks. Not only does this avoid monotony—it gives patients the chance to learn something new from each job they attempt. Templeton Hospital was started in 1929 with an occupational and training programme based largely on farming. After the discontinuation of farming and the resulting sale of some of the land three years ago, the hospital has turned increasingly to basic industry as a training medium. Further evidence of the progress being made will be provided soon with the addition of more facilities. There are plans to build a large new industrial block incorporating two large workrooms and staff accommodation.

This block, which will bring the industrial training faculties into a closer and more manageable group, will represent the first stage of a complex containing a gymnasium, kindergarten and swimming pool.