The Rehabilitation Center of Hawaii [editorial]

Originally published in the Hawaii Medical Journal 1954 May-Jun; 13(5):366.
Reproduced with the permission of the Hawaii Medical Association.

In August, 1950, at the request of five agencies* concerned with handicapped persons, the Oahu Health Council began a study of the problem of rehabilitation in Honolulu. In February 1953, with the financial assistance of the Public Health Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, the Council's Rehabilitation Committee brought Dr. Howard A. Rusk from New York to speak on rehabilitation and consult with them.

Dr. Rusk's inspiring visit, added to the groundwork already laid, resulted in the rapid maturing of plans for establishing a rehabilitation center. At this point Kauikeolani Children's Hospital unexpectedly entered the picture with an offer of ground space, buildings, and such ancillary services as laundry, kitchen, laboratory and x-ray facilities. A local orthopedic surgeon** agreed to serve on a volunteer, part-time basis as medical director; and on September 15, 1953, the Rehabilitation Center of Hawaii opened its doors.

The "Rehab" Center today covers 8800 square feet, with 18 ward beds and facilities for handling, 50 out-patients daily. Equipment is available for occupational, physical, speech, hearing and play therapies. Henry N. Thompson, Jr., is Assistant Director, and George E. Patterson is Placement and Public Relations Counselor. There is one psychiatric social worker, and there are 2 occupational and 4 physical therapists.

There are 15 in-patients now (6 have been discharged) and over 40 handicapped persons are undergoing rehabilitation on an out-patient basis. A number of dramatically successful rehabilitation projects have been carried near to completion, such as making a paraplegic, totally bedridden for 12 years in a local hospital, almost entirely selfsufficient at the wheel-chair level; and a quadriplegic, helpless for 13 years, self-supporting (in a wheel-chair) writing radio and television scripts.

A large and effective Placement Committee of influential local citizens assists the Center in finding work at which the Center's alumni can become at least partially self-supporting -- the ultimate goal for them all.

The formation of the Rehabilitation Center of Hawaii has been a community wide effort, made possible by the effective cooperation of many different agencies through the Oahu Health Council. Both government and private agencies cooperated at both exploratory and planning stages. Much credit is due the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis for their generous financial support at the outset, and to Children's Hospital for their timely offer of essential physical facilities, as well as to the thirteen physicians who have donated their professional services to the institution.

The cost-saving potentialities of the Rehabilitation Center are incalculable. The difference between keeping a man in bed in a county hospital -- or even in his children's or his own home -- and having him up and around on crutches or in a wheel-chair, doing a job, earning a living, is enormous. It would be amply justified, of course, purely from the spiritual and humanitarian aspect; but it is on equally sound ground in terms of hard, cold dollars and cents. An expenditure of roughly $3,000, for example, has already put a stop to bed care which had already cost the taxpayers about $40,000 and was slated to cost them fully twice as much more in the next 25 years. This could be multiplied 50 times on the basis of the known cases, and perhaps 250 times for the whole community -- though this is a guess, and a far from educated one at that.

Moreover, this value is concerned with persons already disabled. The Center has much to offer them, but it also has much to offer the recently injured. The narrower the gap between the disabling event and the beginning of rehabilitation training, the more efficient and effective that training is. Narrowing this gap will require education of physicians to full and free acceptance of this new and -- to most doctors -- rather unfamiliar concept in medical care. We hope this brief account will give them a little start along the road. The Rehabilitation Center of Hawaii is here, filling a long-existing need. Let's give it our full support!

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* The National Society for Crippled Children and Adults, the Vocational Rehabilitation Bureau, the Oahu Tuberculosis and Health Association, the Department of Public Welfare, and the Bureau of Sight Conservation.

** Dr. Richard S. Dodge.

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