Rehabilitation

“ If, in the course of their rehabilitation, persons undergoing rehabilitation through labour have mended their ways and are qualified for employment, they may be provided with other employments upon the approval of the organs in charge of rehabilitation through labour ”

“ Such tactics leave both body and mind in a condition that does not permit of up-building. There is little foundation for any effort and with the passing of each day, there is a tearing-out of bodily and mental vigor that makes all effort useless.
But in the average individual, physical rebuilding is a process of but a few weeks. The mental rehabilitation can usually be accomplished in an equally short period of time and when these things have been brought about, perfect speech soon follows if the correct methods are applied. ”

“ Rehabilitation is a collaborative process that involves health care providers, therapists, educators, employers, and many others. For example, through advances in technology, scientists and engineers are helping persons with disabilities to overcome the physical barriers that once prevented them from participating in the mainstream of American life. ”

“ The person and the personality of the offender are the point of focus rather than the crime, although the crime is, however, not forgotten. And in terms of this theory of punishment and as a necessary consequence of its application, the offender has to be imprisoned for a long period for the purpose of rehabilitation. By treatment and training the offender is rehabilitated, or, at the very least, ceases to be a danger to society. ”

“ He must feel that we know it to be our difficulty as well as his, that we are not looking on with the cold gaze of an outsider, that we suffer in his suffering, and still that it is at last his, and that with all our best efforts we can only contribute a little to what must be for the most part his own reconstruction, a reconstruction like that which the [Pg 58] body performs when it heals a wound which the surgeon or the physician can only encourage a little towards its natural healing. ”

“ The state of society in towns, continually imposes obstructions to health, and offers inducements to the slothful, in the shape of palliatives, which ultimately increase “the miseries of human life.” Exercise is both a prevention and a remedy ”

“ Social distempers, like those of the body, are accompanied by the agency of restoration. The sick man, debilitated and suffering from the violence of his symptoms, seeks his bed and calls his physician, thus placing himself in the most favorable attitude for recovery. ”

“ To prove that there is need of a great and thorough reform, both in the habits of society generally, and in the practice of the healing art, I will bring forward some facts, which have occurred in my own experience as a healer of the sick during the past seven years. ”

“ Our reply is, that, as we have two objects to accomplish, namely, the full and perfect culture of the well-formed, and the restoration of such as are only imperfectly developed, we must adapt our means to the end proposed, and exercise the body upon itself, as is done in running, walking, and swimming, for those only who require this training; but in all cases where there is deformity, or only partial evil, the curative means must be adapted to the restoration of the imperfect organs. ”

“ Now we treat their sick and ailing bodies just as we would any other class of chronic patients, with rest, comfortable surroundings, good food, baths, and fresh air, correction of bad habits, gentleness, and kindness, leaving their minds and souls practically without treatment, excepting in so far as ordinary, decent humanity and consideration may be regarded as mental remedies,—and we cure from thirty to fifty per cent, and make all but five per cent comfortable, contented, comparatively happy. ”

“ The forms of medical treatment examined in a former chapter exhibited the connection which remained unsevered when portions of the body, or of its issues, or clothing, had been detached; so that it was sufficient to subject these objects to healing or sacred influences in order to effect the cure of the man himself. But if the kin together form one body in any substantial sense, the treatment of other members than the one actually suffering, if not sufficient to restore him to health, will at all events help his recovery. ”

“ The true natural healer makes use of air, water, food, exercise, mental training—in fact, all the means nature has put at his disposal. He realizes that the best treatment is education of the patient. In many cases a cure can be greatly hastened by proper local treatment. ”

“ These have a tendency to take one part of the human being, or one procedure of treatment, and to play this up to the elimination of all the rest. Some do everything with the mind. Others pay no attention to the mind. Bathing, massage, manipulating the spine, washing out the colon, baths in mud, sunshine or water, suggestion and many other things are separately given credit for being cure-alls. Many of these are excellent as a part of regenerative treatment, but they are not sufficient of themselves to give permanent results. ”

“ They visit the patient at his sick bed for the first time, and there they remind him very graciously of the cause of his sickness, and leave him as soon as he can leave his bed. Intelligent good will embraces its objects the moment they are discovered, and never abandons them. The grand outlines of expansive and understanding benevolence are—the prevention of crime or any other misery—the comfort of the sufferer and the reformation of the criminal—and the prevention (p. 210) of future distress and relapse into crime. ”

“ My immediate recovery from the effects of an injury caused by an accident, an injury that neither medicine nor surgery could reach, was the falling apple that led me to the discovery how to be well myself, and how to make others so. ”

“ The body has in itself a certain power of curing itself and many things can rouse this curative power into action, such as mental conditions, or medicine, or exercise, etc. As long as we are disturbed by physical conditions, so long we need the help of physical agencies. ”

“ If you would preserve your youthful vigour, and run successfully the course which is before you, you must neither overtax your physical or mental powers, nor neglect to take reasonable care of your health. Social intercourse, active exercise, bodily rest, and mental repose, are, each in its turn, as essential to your well-being, as they are to your personal comfort ”

“ The patients' occupations must be regulated by proper advice and detailed directions, and distractions of various kinds must be provided to keep their minds from becoming concentrated on certain portions of their body, emphasizing whatever discomfort is present and preventing nature's curative processes. Finally, local treatment of various kinds must be employed suitable to each individual case, that will remove all mechanical difficulties, disperse congestions, relieve fatigue and over-tiredness, and make conditions favorable for the healthy, normal use of joints and muscles. ”

“ From this time our poor hero began to recover; and, although hope is said to be the best physician in the world, and he had nothing now to hope for, it was surprising how rapidly he improved. The return from a sick-bed to the active duties of life, the change from the close and darkened chamber to the pure air of heaven and the glorious sunlight, has a wonderful effect in restoring health. ”

“ Or you might build a splendid marble palace of a hospital or asylum, and herd together vast numbers of little boys or fallen women or cripples, and try in some big, mechanical, institutional way to do with your pound of cure what an ounce of prevention would have accomplished a thousand times better, if it could have come in the way of justice, not charity. ”

“ BE OF GOOD CHEER AND COURAGE.—Recovery will be gradual, and not sudden; vital force is developed slowly from within. The object aimed at by medicine and counsel, is to aid and increase nervous and physical vigor, and give tone to the demoralized system. ”

“ After a month or six weeks of careful treatment, the preliminary rest that would restore physical health and strength being followed by a course of exercise in the open air with plenty of good food, pleasant surroundings, and hope constantly held out to them, it is no wonder that these patients went out of the sanitariums as a rule confident that their habit was conquered for good. ”

“ Moreover, with our increased skill in medicine and surgery and education, the diseased and defective may often be restored to health or fitted for some form of self-support that makes them happier and of use to the community. The wastage of human life has been greatly reduced in recent years. ”

“ The moral treatment is all-important. In severe cases, removal from home surroundings and isolation, either in a hospital ward or nursing home, are essential, in order that full benefit may be derived from psychotherapeutic measures. ”

“ They are not so much hospitals for the cure of a disease, as homes of refuge and safety, into which the poor inebriate, who has lost or destroyed his own home, with all its good and saving influences, may come and make a new effort, under the most favoring influences, to recover himself. ”

“ But there came an hour, as she approached her third decade, when the purpose to be thus wrought seemed fully accomplished, when from the gates of death, through which she had nearly passed, she was raised almost instantaneously, miraculously, as it seemed, by the agency of a modern exponent of the science of healing, to perfect health and strength, an emancipation which, in the many useful years that have since elapsed, has known no illness, no pain, or exhaustion, although she has come constantly in touch with disease of every kind. ”

“ Does a garden need to be weeded? Does an old fence need to be kept in repair? Do we paint our houses only once in a century? What about the musician—does he not need to keep in practice? Supposing that you never kept your muscles in repair by constant use or exercise—how long would you be strong or healthy? ”

“ When I lay hands on the sick, I expect the healing power and influence of God to pass through me to the patient, and the disease to give way. I do not say that I heal everybody I lay hands on; but many have been healed under my administration. ”

“ Experience and study have supplied something to give, mental discipline and unimpaired physical strength supply the power for service, the broad outlook reveals the need and place of service, and the soul's awakening toward God and the neighbor have supplied the motives for service.
(2) Physical and mental power at the height. Waste and repair in bodily tissues are balanced during the prime of life. If development has been normal, the will is resolute, and judgment and reason are dominating and wise, for experience has given large data from which to draw conclusions. ”

“ METHODS OF TREATMENT. The natural scenery of these places enters largely into the system of treatment as an active agent, and exerts a powerful influence upon the weak and suffering spirit. For instance, the soul that is irritable, peevish, dissatisfied with itself, requires a soothing, calm, and gentle influence. She is brought to one of the great garden sanitariums, and taken in charge by a family of tender, sympathetic beings, who delight to care for her. ”

“ A sort of heathen revival took place, for even the ministers and deacons turned Musclemen; old ladies tossed bean-bags till their caps were awry, and winter roses blossomed on their cheeks; school-children proved the worth of the old proverb, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” by getting their backs ready before the burdens came; pale girls grew blithe and strong swinging their dumb namesakes ”

“ Straightway as soon as I enter with these, men and women, into flourishing towns, I am reverenced and tens of thousands follow, to learn where is the path which leads to welfare, some desirous of oracles, others suffering from all kinds of diseases, desiring to hear a message of healing. ”

“ Human needs, human instincts, and human perceptions do not alter in their nature, and the dislocations of intricate social adjustments, which follow from the natural course of historic development, will not prove beyond the skill of social surgery to reduce, if the need is recognized for encyclopædic wisdom in the professors of the healing art. ”

“ An individual who is suffering from a chronic ill which he is unable to correct by following a physician’s advice at home, should seek refuge in a sanitarium and be educated in the divine laws of God or Nature. ”

“ The proverb that "Prevention is better than cure," to which everybody gives unhesitating assent, but which is often forgotten in practice, lies at the root of most of the reforms, both moral and physical, effected by the Tootmanyoso. ”

“ In such cases, the desire of administering relief becomes the leading one, so that the mind is turned off from the view of the suffering to dwell on conceptions of modes of relief. Thus the surgeon and physician gradually form such habits that the sight of pain and suffering lead the mind to the conception of modes of relief, whereas a mind not thus interested dwells on the more painful ideas. ”

“ Remember that your presence in the wards is only tolerated in order that you may learn to minister to the relief of those who in future days may need assistance, and that you are bound to exercise the greatest care, lest, by any harshness of manner, unkindness of remark, or roughness of conduct, you aggravate the distress of those poor sufferers who are now to form the subjects of your observation. ”

“ In conclusion, he observes that under proper treatment, by which the prospects are profoundly affected, and with care, a life of activity is practicable in many cases, provided bodily exertion be avoided, or exercised moderately. ”

“ This cautious keeping out of sight of the sufferers everything that might awaken them to a sense of their own condition, or that of the other patients, appears to me to be the most peculiar 310 feature of the discipline, and is evidently one of the objects most sedulously kept in view. Next to this I should place the system of inducing the male patients to exercise their limbs, and amuse their spirits, by working in the garden, at any undertaking, however bizarre and profitless, which can induce them to keep mind and body healthily employed. ”