New UCLA Rehabilitation Center to Feature Multi-Disciplinary Approach
Ralph E. Worden, M.D. *
Fig. 1
Two years from now, the U.C.L.A. Prosthetics Education Program will expand into larger quarters in the new U.C.L.A. Physical Rehabilitation Center, on which construction is scheduled to start in September. The new Center will be located on the West Medical Campus, a 33-acre tract of land one mile west of the present Medical Center. This campus will be the site of a number of special medical service and research facilities, the first of which, Nuclear Medicine, is almost ready for occupancy.
The Rehabilitation Center will have a total of 130,000 square feet of floor space, will be of reinforced concrete construction, and will have five levels or floors. By taking advantage of the hillside building site, entrances to each floor are available from ground level, which will be a great advantage to handicapped people entering in wheel chairs, on crutches, or with artificial limbs. Adequate parking will be provided for both staff and patients in lots close to the building. Design of the buildings is being handled by Welton Becket and Associates, and the estimated cost is $5,500,000.
The I'.C.L.A. Physical Rehabilitation Center was conceived ten years ago by Stafford L. Warren, M.D., Dean of the U.C.L.A. Medical School, when the plans for the Medical School were being made. Surviving many trials and tribulations, Dean Warren overcame obstacles that would have caused lesser men to concede defeat and turn their attention to other matters. The program in the Center will reflect the philosophy of rehabilitation which Dean Warren feels is the most efficient approach to providing the best possible care for nearly every kind of chronic disability.
Dean Warren firmly believes that rehabilitation of the chronically ill and disabled is the responsibility of all the major divisions of medical science, and that therefore a center dedicated to serve such patients must have within it an extension of each of these major medical divisions, each extension confining its efforts to the problems of the patients in need of rehabilitation. In effect, each of the services concerned would have in the Rehabilitation Center a branch which is an extension of the corresponding department in the main Medical Center on the East Medical Campus. The acutely ill would be confined in the hospital in the latter Center. If judged in need of rehabilitation service by a screening conference group, the convalescent patients would be transferred to the Rehabilitation Center, where 56 beds will be available for their use.
The Department of Surgery will have two services in the Center, although no provision is being made for more than very minor surgery in the building. Orthopedics will have a quota of beds for in-patients, and clinical facilities for out-patients who are being followed up after discharge home, and for other patients who come in for out-patient treatment of chronic disabilities that do not require bed care. The Prosthetics Education Program will have new quarters comprising approximately 8,000 square feet of laboratory, storage, classroom, and office space. These facilities should enable this program to conduct courses for full-time students working for a degree in the field of prosthetics-orthotics, while continuing their present program of short extension courses. Head and Neck Surgery will be in charge of testing and treating handicapping conditions in speech and hearing.
The Department of Pediatrics will have a wing in which they will work on chronic diseases of children. Included in this area will be the Child Amputee Prosthetics Project, which is a joint venture of Pediatrics and Orthopedic Surgery.
The Department of Medicine will maintain staff and facilities for three services of great importance in rehabilitation: rheumatology, cardiology, and geriatrics. Significant research is being done in the areas of arthritis and heart disease, and this work will be coordinated with the clinical activities of the Rehabilitation Center.
The actvities of medical-social workers will be supervised by the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation will be responsible for physical medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and vocational rehabilitation counseling.
The rehabilitation nursing program will be an extension of the School of Nursing, and the School of Social Welfare will be responsible for students assigned to the Center from that School. Hospital Administration will be responsible for physical facilities and housekeeping services.
While the Physical Rehabilitation Center will treat and rehabilitate many patients, this activity is not the primary purpose of the facility. Dean Warren has emphasized many times his conviction that this Center should be chiefly devoted to training rehabilitation personnel to go out into the field and staff the many rehabilitation facilities that will be needed in the future. The entire program, then, will be geared to do an educational job for medical students, internes, and residents, so that every physician trained at U.C.L.A. will receive basic training in the rehabilitation of the chronically disabled, and can specialize in this work if he so desires.
Paramedical personnel, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, rehabilitation nurses, speech and hearing technicians, prosthetists. and orthotists will be trained to work together and with the physicians as members of the rehabilitation team in an atmosphere and surroundings that accurately reflect the problems they will face when they graduate and start to practice their various professions. Medical-social workers, social welfare students, hospital administrators, and vocational rehabilitation counselors will learn how their professional skills fit into the rehabilitation center function, and into rehabilitation in general.
The field of prosthetics-orthotics is one for which U.C.L.A. is well-known for its work in both research and education. In the new Physical Rehabilitation Center, the opportunities to expand both research and education in prosthetics and orthotics will be almost unlimited. Large and well-equipped laboratories will make it possible to conduct larger classes, carry on testing and development work, and try out new materials and methods. It is anticipated that even closer liaison will be maintained between Prosthetics Education and the Southern California manufacturers of prosthetics equipment and prosthetics and orthotics service facilities to the benefit of all concerned, including the amputee and other orthopedically handicapped people.
International Prosthetics Course In Paris Planned
An international prosthetics course, jointly organized by the French Ministry of War Veterans and War Victims, The World Veterans Federation, and the International Society for Rehabilitation of the Disabled, is scheduled to be held in Paris, July 3 to 15. 1961.
The course has been initiated by the International Society's Committee on Prostheses. Braces and Technical Aids, and will follow the same pattern as those organized in Copenhagen in 1958 and 1959 and in New York in 1960. The Faculty will be selected from among world leaders in the orthopaedic field, and will include physicians, physio- and occupational therapists and orthopaedic technicians. The program will include the most modern aspects of prosthetic and orthotic techniques.
French will be the official language of the course, and any lectures delivered in English will be translated into French. The working sessions will take place at the Medical School of the Paris University. The Faculty and participants will be accommodated on the campus of the University. An inclusive fee of 400 N.F. ($80 in U.S. currency) for the course will cover registration, board and lodging, and one copy of the final report.
Further information may be obtained from the International Society for Rehabilitation of the Disabled, 701 First Avenue, New York 17, N.Y., or from World Veterans Federation, 16, Rue Hamelin, Paris 16, France.
|
