Rehabilitation Center Sought Here for Northwest Louisiana Parishes

              The Shreveport Times
.Founded as a Daily and Sunday Newspaper Nov. 28, 1871, Following the
Consolidation and Merger of its Weekly Predecessors,
Published Since Jan. 17, 1839
1
Page 2-B, Sunday, February 14, 1971
Rehabilitation Center Sought Here
For Northwest Louisiana Parishes
"The Rehabilitation S e r v i c e s
C o m m i t t e e of the Community
Council is engaging in a program
to have local area citizens influence
their state legislators to have a
Comprehensive Rehabilitation Cen-ter
established in Shreveport that
would serve the seven parishes of
Northwest Louisiana.
Some dozen local groups, in-cluding
the LSU School of Medicine
at S'hreveporL are aiding in the
campaign.
If they are successful in their
endeavor, Shreveport would have
the first institution of this kind in
the state. It would provide contin-uing
services for disabled people to
enable them to overcome their
infirmities to an extent needed to
allow them to gain employment
and take their place in society once
more.
In 1968 the Louisiana Legisla-ture
unanimously approved the
establishment of such a center but
did not provide the necessary
funds for it. If the state can be
influenced to allocate $75,000 or
$100,000 the federal government
would p r o v i d e $300,000 to
$400,000 to enable the center to
become a reality.
There are presently more than
20,000 disabled persons in the
seven Northwest Louisiana parish-es
who could be aided by a
rehabilitation center. Among the
disabled are paraplegics, amputees,
mentally retarded, emotionally dis-turbed
and wheelchair victims as
well as those suffering from em-physema,
diabetes, heart trouble
and a diversity of other ailments
that preclude them from working
regularly.
Some have been disabled from
birth, others suffered disablement
in auto accidents, fires, industrial
accidents or disease.
Once their initial medical treat-ment
renders them fit to partici-pate,
the proposed rehabilitation
center would provide them contin-uing
medical services, such as
hydrotherapy, diathermy, physical
therapy, speech and audio therapy
and occupational therapy as the
first portion of its two-phase pur-pose.
The center would then conduct
a vocational evaluation of the
disabled person and make arrange-ments
to fit him into a training
program which would enable him
to earn a living. The vocational
training could be given by private
business, by a vocational-technical
school or by other sources.
The LSU Medical School here
has set' aside three units of an
apartment complex it has on Lin-wood
Avenue for the center. If the
necessary funds are appropriated
by the legislature these units
would be renovated and furnished
with the equipment necessary to
make the rehabilitation center a
going concern.
A side benefit of the center
would enable medical school stu-dents
to secure on-the-job training
at the facility uner the supervision,
of course, of competent doctors
who would serve at the center
regularly.
Initial plans call for some two
dozen beds so that disabled persons
from outlying areas would not have
to make the long trip daily. Local
patients would remain at their own
homes when not engaged in train-ing
or therapy at the center.
The center, once established,
would cost about $224,000 annually
for operation with 80 per cent of
that coming from federal funds.
We have always favored reason-able
plans that enable the less
fortunate to help themselves and
the rehabilitation center would do
just that.
The Community Council has
prepared a 16-minute slide-tape
presentation for civic organizations
outlining the project and is anxious
to show it at group meetings. Their
hope is that sufficient persons will
see it and will write to their
legislators to help pry the money
loose from the state coffers.