Expanding a sheltered workshop to replace nonpaying patient jobs

Mental hospitals with large numbers of inactive chronic patients often have a history of hospital farms and shops that provided meaningful, though unpaid, occupation to hundreds of patients. The reforms of work programs brought about by the Souder v. Brennan decision were long overdue, the author says, but the resulting termination of work programs in many hospitals means many benefits to patients have been lost. At one state hospital, many of the jobs eliminated by the Souder decision were replaced by an expansion of the hospital's sheltered workshop, which operates under a work activities center certificate. A project in which patients made and assembled parts for unpainted wooden toys was responsible for much of the expansion.