Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by the City of Covington, with additional funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services through Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and generous donations from Dr. Thomas Crews and Dr. R. Steven Whatley.
Newspaper Page Text
8A
THE COVINGTON NEWS — TUESDAY, JUNE 8. 1976
At a recent Heard-Mixon PTO meeting Erank
Cloer, school superintendent, explained the
reasons behind the new elementary school
district lines. The PTO voted to have attorney
Information about handicapped sought
The Georgia Department of
Education is seeking information
about handicapped Georgians
under age 20. Parents and others
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PTO concerned
Phil Johnson (shown here) attempt to stop the
new school assignments due to become effective
when the 1976-77 school year begins.
who can supply information about
anyone from birth to age 20 who
is handicapped are asked to
contact the Child Find Project,
Georgia Department of Educa
tion, Atlanta 30334 (404-656-
6319).
The project is being undertaken
to increase services and benefits
to handicapped Georgia children,
according to Dr. H. Titus Single
tary Jr., associate state superin
tendent of schools.
Information being collected
includes professional diagnostic
data, services needed and
provided and state and local costs
for some of the on-going pro
grams. The information, which
officials assure will be kept confi
dential, will be used to research
directions for future programs to
assist and educate handicapped
Georgians.
Parents and guardians will have
the right to inspect any informa
tion collected about their child by
the project staff. However, the
access of unauthorized individuals
to personally identifiable date
without parental consent is
forbidden.
The project regulations provide
that after special services are
handled for a specific child, the
files are to be destroyed.
In its search for needed infor
mation. the Georgia Department
of Education also will seek infor
mation on the handicapped from
the Georgia Department of
Human Resources, mental health,
physical health, vocational
rehabilitation and family and
children services divisions, and
the Georgia Department of Cor
rections-Offender Rehabilitation,
special services division.
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REMNANTS a Sff. 69^
Patient panels help
bring down barriers
It took Rita months to seek
help.
"I knew I had a problem with
drugs,” she says. "But I also
thought I knew what mental
hospitals were like. My image of
these hospitals kept me from
getting the help I needed.”
Today Rita spends whatever
time she can exploding those
myths about state institutions. A
patient at the West Central
Georgia Regional Hospital at
Columbus, she is also a member
of the hospital’s Patient Panels
— hospital residents who talk to
civic, church and high school and
college groups about life in the
hospital as well as the problems
that brought them there,
“I’ve been on three patient
panels so far." says Rita. “And I
think I've helped people under
stand that we aren’t animals. We
don’t live in padded cells and
walk around handcuffed. It’s sad,
but there are a lot of people who
still believe that these kinds of
things go on.
“I figure there may be some
people in the audience who may
have problems and need help. If
I can convince them that mental
hospitals are not snake pits those
people will be more likely to seek
help.”
The Patient Panel Program at
Columbus is unique. The only
other one in the country is at
Sam Ramsey was presented a Good Citizen Award by Mrs. Cecile
Dial at a recent meeting of the Pilot Club of Covington. The group
met in the conference room at Newton Federal Savings & Loan.
Mrs. Ramsey was among guests at the meeting, which concluded
with a reception for guests and newly installed officers.
Osawatomie State Hospital in
Kansas where the Patient Panel
first came into being.
“State hospitals have conducted
visitors’ tours for years," says Dr.
W. P. Mazur, superintendent at
Columbus and former clinical
director at Osawatomie State.
"But one day in 1963 a tour
group came through Osawatomie
and something different happened.
Members of the groups saw the
buildings, the staff then they
began talking with a patient,
asking questions about life in the
hospital.
“The Patient Panel grew from
that one experience and we began
sending groups of three to five
patients along with a panel
moderator out into the com
munity.” Dr. Mazur and his staff
initiated the program at
Columbus in May of 1975. In
that time 14 panels have been
presented to more than 420
people in the Columbus and
Americus area.
According to Dr. Mazur the
panels are beneficial to both
patients and the public.
“In the first place the audiences
sees an ordinary person — with
out horns or tail. The person
doesn't spew fire. The panelist
begins talking and the audience
thinks, why that human being is
not so very different from me.
This kind of personal contact
Good citizen
begins to erase the stigma of
mental illness to the persons
attending that panel."
The panels also help to ease re
entry of the patient back into the
community. Talking to people
often makes the patient less
nervous about learning to live
outside the protection of the
hospital. Often, says Dr. Mazur
the experience of participating on
a panel is the turning point in
the patient’s life. One patient in
Kansas became interested in
public speaking and after leaving
the hospital found a job with a
local radio station. A Columbus
patient found the panels a good
transition from hospital to
community and now has an
excellent job in a law office.
Panel members are chosen by
chaplains, doctors, and nurses on
the hospital units. Appearance on
the panel is voluntary. Barbara
Pound, volunteer coordinator at
the hospital, is also in charge of
the panel program. “Occasionally
we’ll find a panelist who gets in
front of an audience and wants
to dominate the whole show,”
says Mrs. Pound. “Most of the
time the other panelists will just
tell the person to be quiet and
let somebody else talk.”
The audience is free to ask any
question and subjects range from
the daily routine of the hospital
to the personal history of the
patient. Panelists can refuse to
answer a question if they wish.
“Our approach here at the
hospital is that while we are
dealing with the illness we are
also building on the strengths of
the individual,” says Dr. Mazur.
“What are the things that work
for patients? It may be music
therapy, recreation, occupational
therapy. It may also be the
patient panels. They are a part
of the program here and we
analyze its effectiveness in the
same way we do our other
programs.”
After each panel the patients
write an evaluation of the panel
and answer such questions as
"Why did you appear on the
panel? Did you feel you had
accomplished anything after
appearing on the panel? Did the
audience react as you expected?
The audience is also asked to
fill out a reaction questionnaire.
One audience member summed
up the panel this way— “I
learned compassion for
their situation and the
likeness of them and myself . . .
5,500 refugees
placed in jobs
by agencies
WASHINGTON — More than
5,500 Indochinese refugees were
placed in white • and blue-collar
jobs by local state employment
service IES) offices during the
past eight months, the Labor De
partment has announced.
Secretary of Labor W. J. Usery
Jr. said the placements were
made from among the 130,000
refugees who fled Vietnam and
Cambodia when American forces
withdrew from Vietnam.
About 27,000 of the refugees
registered with ES offices across
the country. Besides the 5,500
placed, an additional 6,900 were
referred to training and other
services.
The refugees were found jobs in
more than 1,200 communities
throughout the country, an
average of less than five jobs per
community.
A recent Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare survey of
1,424 heads of households
covering 7,500 refugees showed
that about 82 per cent of the
men 16 years and older who
were able to work are already in
jobs. About 70 per cent of the
women 16 and over able to work
were also employed.
The odds on a coin falling
heads 50 consecutive times
are so great that it would
take a million men tossing
coins 10 times a minute and
40 hours a week—and then
it would happen only once
every nine centuries!
