Created by Kurt Johnson & Darlena Dotson
The Adult Rehabilitation Center
An adult rehabilitation center serves men and women with social, emotional, and spiritual needs who have lost the ability to cope with their problems and provide for themselves. The center provides adequate housing with work, group and individual therapy in clean wholesome surroundings. Physical and spiritual care prepares the beneficiaries to re-enter society and return to employment. Frequently those rehabilitated are reunited with their families and resume a normal life-style. The work therapy program of the center includes the collection and repair of discarded materials and the operation of the Salvation Army thrift stores in which restored materials are sold at moderate prices. Proceeds from these stores assist in supporting the program of the centers. This program is available without regard to race, religion, color, or national origin, in keeping with The Salvation Army's Affirmative Action Program. Adult rehabilitation centers are not licensed except in areas of health and safety.
The Purpose of an Adult Rehabilitation Center
The primary purpose of an adult rehabilitation center is the spiritual regeneration and rehabilitation of men and women who have undergone a process of disaffiliation from those significant ties which enable individuals to take advantage of the opportunities and cope with the tribulations of everyday life. These men and women could be handicapped mentally, morally, physically, and socially. More importantly, they are often handicapped spiritually. The center affords them the opportunity to gain insights into their problems, while acquiring self-respect, and to develop moral and spiritual principles of conduct and habits of industry that will enable them to gain purpose and meaning in their lives
This makes for a complex operation requiring a carefully organized combination of spiritual endeavor; applied social, psychological and medical services; effective use of the unique work therapy program and the practical application of sound business principles.
The Spiritual Base
The entire program of an adult rehabilitation center is built on a spiritual motivation, a compulsion to help men and women as expression of Divine Love. This is the permeating and motivating force behind the work of every officer and staff member connected with the center as they apply a variety of social, psychological, vocational, and medical techniques and approaches.
A direct spiritual approach is necessary part of this overall program. The Salvation Army is firm in the belief that human regeneration is found only through Jesus Christ. The hope is that each beneficiary will see God as loving, merciful, and forgiving, concerned about personal failings and unhappiness, and waiting for the opportunity to lift his or her own burdens. For this to be effective, the Spirit of God must pervade the entire center program. This is the base on which each part of the program is built and from which each member of the staff operates. Spiritual care includes personal and group counseling and attendance at religious services. The center provides the opportunity for each beneficiary to gain full insight into spiritual values.
The administrator, as an Army officer and an ordained minister, always carries the responsibility for guiding this program, assisted by the chaplain, by other officers and staff, and by the local corps community centers.
The Rehabilitation Program
Rehabilitation is the process of restoring beneficiaries to their best possible level of functioning. It includes all aspects of the center program, the spiritual emphasis, to bring people into an effective relationship with God; work therapy; health and education; social and leisure-time activities; individual and group therapy; the living arrangements; the general aura of the center. The program is as tangible as the workbench at which beneficiaries repair appliances for sale in one of the thrift stores, or as intangible as the all-pervasive atmosphere of cheerfulness, attractiveness, challenge, hope, and helpfulness that is present in each center.
Men that attend the Rehabilitation Program
The men who come to the ARC centers are predominantly between 20 and 65 years of age. There are many ware veterans among them. A few are widowers, more have had poor marriages and an increasing number have never been married. Some have held regular jobs, but not recently; some haven't held jobs very long; and increasing number have never held permanent jobs. They may have rejected work ethic, or they may have lacked an economical opportunity. Many have not completed high school, and many have finished college. In addition the number of non-white beneficiaries is growing.
Generally, there has been little recent association with families. Some left home at an early age following a parents death, hard economic times, or, more likely, intense family conflict. There is, for most, a continuing pattern of weak and or lost interpersonal relationship skills. For many, there are both physical and mental problems, sometimes as a result of a variety of individual experiences. They frequently abuse alcohol and other drugs as a way to escape from the abject misery of their life-style or simply to kill time. Drug use is a way to participate in the typical companionship found on the streets.
Women that attend the Rehabilitation Program
Women come to the centers from backgrounds similar to those of the men, and with the same characteristics. The difference is related to traditional thinking about customary behavior.
In times past, women were expected to marry, or to remain within the protection of the family circle. They did not take to the street looking for opportunity, nor did they strike out on their own. Women who abused alcohol or other substances were hidden in the community or went undiagnosed. Many were medicine-cabinet junkies who were addicted to prescription medicines.
The situation has changed during the later part of the 20th century as women have sought independence and liberation from the expectations of parents, communities, churches, and synagogues. With this freedom has come the pressure to "make it." Some of those who do so and who lack the qualities that give stability to their lives turn to unacceptable behavior, for example alcohol and other drug dependency or prostitution. Many are lonely, depressed, bored, and sometimes suicidal. They are withdrawn and difficult to reach, often torn between the pull of family and security, and the need for independence. Society's attitude toward such women is an added handicap for those who want help. Special skills are called for from those who give this help.
Created by Kurt Johnson & Darlena Dotson