Pulmonary Diseases Service Rehabilitation Program of a Veterans Administration Hospital

¹ The Pulmonary Diseases Servi, Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital, Van Nuys, California.

A rehabilitation plan such as this can be adopted for use in tuberculosis institutions other than those in the Veterans Administration. Modifications could be in the form of increased use of municipal and state rehabilitation and educational facilities. Volunteer instructors have been helpful and their contributions could be increased in hospitals having no large rehabilitation staff. The results of such an integrated program have already been demonstrated in the reduction of emotional tensions and the lowering of irregular discharges. We believe that the patients who have completed this regimen of integrated economic and medical rehabilitation are so well adjusted and have their future life so well planned that few of them return to the institution.