287 |
AU |
: |
Carr DT |
TI |
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Vocational rehabilitation in pulmonary tuberculosis
today. |
SO |
: |
AME REV RESPIR DIS 1958, 78, 647-649. |
DT |
: |
Per |
AB |
: |
To determine whether the patient who has had TB
needs training for a better job any more than those who have not
had TB, 150 newly diagnosed TB cases at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota,
USA, were analysed. It was found that the ages, gender and occupations
of the patients were such that only one, a miner, would need vocational
rehabilitation after treatment, although others might be taught
skills so as to earn more money afterwards. Finding that this group
of 150 patients were not representative of all the tuberculous persons
in the US or even in Minnesota, a series of 279 patients admitted
to the Mineral Springs Sanatorium in Minnesota, for the first time
during five years (1952-1956), were analysed. Of these patients,
152 were males and 127, females. All were 16 years old or more.
Eighty-nine of the females were housewives and 8 were maids, 7 were
office workers, 5 had retired, and the rest had varied blue-collar
occupations. While many of the women might have benefited from vocational
rehabilitation to obtain better-paying jobs, rehabilitation was
not needed to prevent relapse of the disease in any case. Of the
152 males, 25 were retired and 30 were farmers. Ninety were skilled
workers. There were 14 unskilled laborers and 3 whose work exposed
them to silica. These last 3 were the only ones in need of vocational
rehabilitation, from a medical standpoint. From these results, it
was concluded that vocational rehabilitation, which was limited
in availability, should be reserved for those physically disabled
citizens who actually have medical indications for vocational rehabilitation.
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KEYWORDS: REHABILITATION; USA. |