The 'RE-HAB SHOP'
It was in 1943 that the
"The Re-Hab Shop" actual became a reality. Around this time 30,000
people were engaged on war work, so the medical staff at Longbridge
on average dealt with 1,000 reportable accidents a year. The
company thought it needed to devise a scheme that would get the
injured workers back at their jobs as quickly as possible.
The idea was not so much a place where injured workers could do
light jobs while nature did the rest, but a specially designed
rehabilitation unit with machines designed to give operators
exercise that would speed the healing process.
After the war their might have been an argument for closing the
rehabilitation centre, but accident figures were still high, and
the unit, which could accommodate about 40 rehabilitation cases,
carried on.
The "Re-Hab. Shop" at Longbridge is synonymous with the latest
developments in workers' welfare. It solves the special problem
when a worker who returns after a period of illness, and needs to
be nursed back into the speed and rhythm of flow-line
production.
With better safety methods and a more skilled and stable labour
force, the number of factory accidents has been cut by more than
half since the war. Now two-thirds of the rehabilitations work is
concerned with employees who have not been injured, but simply
ill.
AFTER ILLNESS
Any worker who has been ill for more than six weeks, and wished to
return to work, is automatically sent to the works doctor for a
medical check. It is most important that the person is fit enough
to resume their job, if not, the employee is sent to the
rehabilitation workshop. The firm's medical officer, Dr. A A White,
and the rehabilitation officer, Mr. Norman Share can gauge by
practical tests a persons capacity and how best they can be
re-introduced to factory working.
Mr Norman Share
The workshop is planned on
normal lines to accustom a patient to the factory atmosphere. It
turns out standard car components so the person feels they are been
useful. Here a patient can step up his working speed over a period
of weeks to the maximum considered safe. If it is found they will
not be fit enough to return to there former occupation, then
training can be started for a new job on the factory floor.
THE INJURED
Meanwhile the original work of the shop for injured and disabled
people goes on along similar lines, Every machine can be adapted by
special gadgets to suit specific disabilities or provide remedial
exercises. In the case of a man with wasted leg muscles, pedal
movements are substituted for hand movements. So through out his
working day he is restoring strength to the limb by bending and
flexing the joints.
With around 260 employees passing through the workshop every year,
it's important that the progress of every one is carefully checked.
Dr. White estimates the number of cases where a person is not
successfully re-employed, is no more than one or two per
cent.
FEWER ACCIDENTS
Longbridge works accident figures have been decreasing year on year
(Jan 1961), and safety-consciousness is growing in work places
throughout the country. What then is our industrial rehabilitation
unit doing?
"These days we are greatly concerned with medical cases, which form
a very large proportion of the cases which come to us, explained
Dr. White the works Senior Medical Officer. Speed and pressure of
work today have reached tremendous proportion and people,
particularly those who are not in the peak of fitness, can be
overtaxed. A man who has been pushing himself beyond his capacity
may suffer either physical or nervous breakdown. A foundry worker
who has had pneumonia illustrates a special problem in
resettlement. In instances such as these retraining in the
rehabilitation unit are the first steps on the road back to
suitable fresh employment. It is in this recovery period that
rehabilitation has its value. To a wage-earner and breadwinner
there is little he cherishes more than the right to earn a
living."
So having been directed to the rehabilitation unit the majority of
cases returning after illness can either go back to their old jobs
or be placed immediately in selected employment, with the more
serious cases finding understanding and an appreciation of their
problems towards the road back to financial security.
This raises the problem what happens when a man or woman leaves the
unit? The Rehabilitation Officer, Mr. Norman Share, explained. "I
have to keep my ears open for jobs that would suit our people. A
man who has been welding on production and was unable to go back,
was found a job in the Experiment Department where his skill could
be used, and the pace would be easier for him. We rely very much on
cooperation from superintendents in letting us, and the Welfare
Department know of jobs that would suit rehabilitation
cases."
There is reason for Normans Share's enthusiasm in the unit as he
was a rehabilitation case himself. "When I had been through the
unit, I was offered a job as assistant to the Rehabilitation
Officer. Now I am doing the job, and I wouldn't give it up for
anything."
A great one for gadgets, Norman has modified many production
machines to suit the special needs of the unit.
One machine which is Norman special 'baby' is a hand-control
automatic machine which drills oil restrictor components.
Mr Norman Share, the
Rehabilitation Office, watches as
Rhys Miles operates the oil restrictor machine
"When I saw the job being done in the works, operators picked up
the component, held it under the drill, and put it aside. Some of
the operators had difficulties with this, and so there were many
rejects." Norman's machine thinks for itself, can be hand or foot
operated and has such a large output that all the works oil
restrictors are now produced from his machine.
Since it opened
the unit has dealt with 3,646 people (1961), it will deal with many
more in the future.
Issued around 1960
All employees with a disability could
obtain a Disability Pass as shown above. This would allow them to
leave the factory 5 minutes before their shift ended, so were not
caught up in the mad rush.