Solway Industrial Unit Leaflets

Six information leaflets, five of which outline the work of the Industrial Therapy Unit, which later became known as Solway Industrial Unit, and explain the work carried out there, along with a list of examples of works undertaken; and a price list for pre-cast concrete products made by the Unit.

c.1960-c.1972

6 documents

An Industrial Therapy Unit was established at Crichton Royal Hospital in 1962 to offer a form of rehabilitative work therapy along factory lines. Initially temporary 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. Examples of the type of work carried out include: 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).

Board of Management Report on Solway Industrial Unit, DGH1/2/4/1/4; 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.