New York State Interdepartmental Health and Hospital Council Minutes and Reports

Arranged in three subseries: Subseries 1, Minutes of Committee on Rehabilitation, 1960-1967, 3.5 c.f.; Subseries 2, Reports of Committee on Rehabilitation, 1960-1969, 0.5 c.f.; and Subseries 3, Minutes and Reports of the Subcommittee on Services to the Blind and Deaf, 1959-1962, 0.5 c.f. Arrangement within subseries is chronological.

The series contains minutes of the Interdepartmental Health and Hospital Council's (IHHC) Committee on Rehabilitation and Subcommittee on Services to the Blind and Deaf, and final drafts of reports analyzing state program needs and IHHC activities in the area of rehabilitation.

Subseries 1, Minutes of the Committee on Rehabilitation. Minutes of monthly meetings contain progress reports on the committee's active projects and a varying number of "exhibits," such as communications from the field and from state officials, outlines and drafts of studies and reports, and publications of the IHH Council and other organizations. The Committee, working cooperatively with the Governor's Council on Rehabilitation, initiated many productive studies and projects during its seven year history. Those documented in the minutes include: regional coordination of state-wide rehabilitation services; designation and development of state-wide comprehensive rehabilitation centers; rehabilitation workshop support services; Governor's Executive Order to eliminate architectural barriers to the handicapped in state buildings; studies of rehabilitation manpower shortages and of effects of salary increases on shortage of rehabilitation personnel; development of State University rehabilitation training programs; amendments to the Education Law regarding licensing of physical therapists; study of Workmen's Compensation Board rehabilitation programs; Civil Service policies regarding employment of the handicapped and restored mentally ill; employment of physically handicapped teachers; inclusion of rehabilitation services in health insurance contracts; utilization of rehabilitation services in nursing homes; utilization of chiropractic method as a state-funded service; pilot program for severely emotionally disturbed and mentally retarded blind children; coordination of state eye health services and programs for the visually handicapped; rehabilitation of prisoners with epilepsy; study of disabled parents in Aid to Dependent Children Program; study of needs expressed by voluntary agencies; and organization of a community rehabilitation field laboratory. Discussions reported in the minutes concern proposals for new initiatives, progress and problems with on-going projects, comments and revisions to drafts of reports, funding problems and grant proposals, legislation and other means of establishing new programs. The minutes and exhibits substantially document discussions, projects and studies.

Subseries 2, Reports of the Committee on Rehabilitation. The Special Assistant to the Council, Joseph Fenton, collated and analyzed the service needs reported by voluntary rehabilitation agencies. He also prepared an unpublished report which completed a series outlining a comprehensive state plan for rehabilitation. Basil J.F. Mott, faculty member at the Columbia University School of Public Health and Administrative Medicine, analyzed the operations of the IHH Council with emphasis on the Committee on Rehabilitation. The Department of Health financed this study for the IHHC. Subseries 2 consists of final drafts of these reports with extensive responses by Department of Health Council members.

Subseries 3, Minutes and Reports of the Subcommittee on Services to the Blind and Deaf. Records result from meetings initiated by Peter J. Salmon, Executive Director of the Industrial Home for the Blind, on behalf of his organization, the New York Association for the Blind, and the New York Guild for the Jewish Blind. Members discussed the needs of severely emotionally disturbed blind children and deaf children, and of multiply handicapped deaf and blind children. Background papers describe the services of the state departments of Health, Social Welfare, and Education. A policy statement of the full IHH Council recommends state funding of diagnostic and educational facilities for these children.

10775Series 10775, Department of Health Departmental Committee on Rehabilitation Reports, Memorandums, and Minutes, contains related information on rehabilitation services.

Container list is available at the repository.

The series was separated from Series 10775, Reports, Memoranda, and Minutes, by State Archives staff in 1988.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.