Material relating to a television feature about Solway Industrial Unit

Material comprises a template letter to relatives of patients advising them about filming and requesting they raise any objections to their relative being featured if felt necessary; lists of names of patients who will or may appear on camera a copy of a speech made by Dr George Stirling in July 1968 about the Unit, a list of names to be sent letters of thanks, the running order for the programme and a newspaper cutting about the programme. The programme was called 'All in a Day's Work' and was broadcast on 21 July 1968 on Border Television.

1967-1968

1 folder

An Industrial Therapy Unit was established at Crichton Royal Hospital in 1962 to offer a form of rehabilitative work therapy along factory lines. Various sites on the hospital estate were used until work was centralised in Solway House where a workshop was established after the building ceased to be used for patient accommodation. The Unit was renamed Solway Industrial Unit and approximately 200 patients attended daily. It was staffed by a Manager, three Industrial Instructors, six Industrial Supervisors, a Secretary, a Charge Nurse and usually about three nurses who looked after specific groups of patients. The Unit's aims were to promote confidence, self-respect and pride in achievement, and work there was viewed as part of the patient's overall treatment. Work was sub-contracted to the Unit by external companies with charges made for labour and costs, and patients could receive reward payments based on work and output. The types of work carried out included assembly and packing (cartons, clothes pegs, book coverings, fireworks, tomato trusses); labelling (plastic bags, cardboard boxes); sorting and packing (powder sachets, nytron material); refurbishing and cleaning (wheelchairs, garden seats, scaffolding clamps); manufacturing (Christmas crackers, packing cases, wood toys, picture framing, printing, engraving, bird tables, plant stands).

Notes on Solway Industrial Unit found in the personal papers of George S. Stirling, DGH1/6/16/11; Photographic Material, DGH1/8

Enquiries for reproduction for commercial purposes should be directed to the Archivist, Dumfries and Galloway Archives and Local Studies

The papers are available at Dumfries and Galloway Archives subject to conditions of UK Data Protection Act 1998, Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and NHS Records Management Code of Practice 2012. Subject to these restrictions, this material is being digitised by the University of Glasgow as part of a Wellcome Trust funded project. Material that is digitised will be accessed freely online through the Wellcome Library catalogue.