Radcliffe Volunteers Do Theraputic Work at Massachusetts Hospitals

Patients in the Boston Psychopathic, Metropolitan State, and Boston Children's Hospitals find their hospitalization easier to bear because of the services of Radcliffe volunteer workers.

Girls are placed in each of these hospitals by the Radcliffe Community Service Committee to do recreational therapy.

In the Children's Hospital, girls work in the medical, orthopedic, occupational therapy, and out-patient departments.

At the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, they work under the direction of the occupational therapist in charge of each ward. Most often the girls play cards or ping pong with the patients or direct them in making crayon drawings. The greatest benefit the patient derives from these activities is not from the occupation itself, but rather from the knowledge that an "outsider" is interested in his happiness.

Work at the Metropolitan State Hospital is much the same. Volunteers there will decorate patients rooms with paint and stencils this spring.

All the volunteers feel that their work is of great value in giving them confidence in the knowledge that they have helped others and, in the case of the mental hospitals, in giving them in sight into themselves.

A volunteer at the Boston Psychopathic says, "I have discovered that the difference between the patients and myself is one of degree. I can understand my own peculiarities better since I have seen them exaggerated in these patients."

Some of the volunteers are doing the hospital work as pre med school training.