A very successful Congress, co-sponsored by four organizations and the National Recreation Association, was held this year. The sessions pertaining to recreation for the ill and handicapped were numerous and well attended, with attendance ranging from fifty-five to two hundred and fifty-five at each session. There were two workshops, one on group dynamics and one on rhythmical expression, and a very successful "Bazaar of Seasonal Themes for the 111 and Handicapped,"* with excellent displays, was an informal swap shop of party ideas for this group.

The Hospital Section opened with Dr. Edward Stainbrook, professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, discussing "The Hospital—A Therapeutic Community." He said it is essential to develop a "conceptual framework" of a hospital, with a scientific understanding of what goes on within it. It is not just an aggregate of individuals. He emphasized the importance of meaningful communications, saying that how well the therapeutic tasks which hold the community together are accomplished depends upon how well communications are developed between individual staff members as a staff team.

Among other hospital meetings, summaries of which are available from the NRA were: "Hospital Recreation Volunteer —My Training and Supervision," chaired by Lillian Summers, American Red Cross hospital consultant; "Recreation for the Mentally Retarded," chaired by Mrs. Frances Grove, supervisor of recreation at Pacific State Hospital, Pomona, California;

"Recreation for Nursing Homes and Homes for the Aged," chaired by Annabelle Story, American Red Cross hospital recreation consultant; "The World from the Patient's Window," with Dr. Charles K. Brightbill, professor of recreation at the University of Illinois, as chairman;

"Workshop on Group Process in Hospital Recreation," chaired by Robert Rynearson, director of volunteer activities at the Veterans Hospital, Sepulveda, California, which had three sessions.

The session on "Neurological Involvements for All Ages" was chaired by Birger

J. Rudquist, chief of special service. Veterans Administration Hospital, Palo Alto, California, and addressed by Dr. 0. Leonard Huddleston, medical director of California Rehabilitation Center and clinical professor of physical medicine at the University Of Southern California School Of Medicine. The speaker used slides to show a comprehensive study of the structure of the nervous system. He talk involved the structural arrangement of the neurological system and its abnormalities.

The Veterans Administration Workshops were well attended. Just for employees of Veterans Administration Hospitals was "New Horizons for Hospital Recreation." (If readers of "Hospital Capsules" wish to know how and when summaries of the many VA workshops will be distributed, write: L. 0. Janssen, Area Chief, Special Service, Veterans Administration, San Francisco, California.)

Summaries of all other meetings, and transcripts of addresses at general sessions, can be ordered from the National Recreation Association for $2.50.

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Have you the new listing of publications in our field entitled Recreation in the Medical Setting? Are you registered as yet with the Council for the Advancement of Hospital Recreation?
You must be a member of one of the three professional organizations before you can be registered. Several hundred people have already registered and received their formal certification. If you wish information about the various levels of registration and the requirements, write to: Miss Annabelle Story, Hospital Recreation Consultant, American
National Red Cross, Washington, D. C.

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One of the best speeches ever given in my opinion, has now been published in pamphlet form and is ready for distribution, through our organization or the University of North Carolina. The speech, by Dr. Joseph B. Wolfle, medical director of Valley Forge Heart Institute and Hospital, Pennsylvania, is entitled Recreation, Medicine and the Humanities; and it is an entirely new slant on recreation for the ill and handicapped. A condensation of this appears on pages 364-365 of this issue of Recreation.

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New York City is now considering the position of a recreation director to coordinate and supervise the thirty-two municipal hospitals within its department of hospitals. Let's hope that the budget department will make this possibility become a reality. U this happens. New York City will have the first city-wide hospital recreation director in the country.

Training
• The National Recreation Association, in conjunction with New York University will hold a seminar. "Recreation for the Homebound 111 and Handicapped" January 29-31, 1958. For further details see the inside back cover of this issue.
• The Department of Recreation and Rehabilitation of Columbia University will conduct a course in recreation for the mentally ill in their second semester. For further information write to: Dr. Josephine Rathbone, Associate Professor of Health, and Physical Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120 Street, New York.
• There is an excellent correspondence course concerning administration for hospital recreation directors being given through the University of Minnesota. Write to: Fred Chapman, Assistant Professor of Recreation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

* See "The Congress Story," page 349 (under Workshops and Demonstrations) .