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Lillemosegard is hospital, employer, and home for moderately, severely, and profoundly retarded adult men and women who are in continuous need of medical and nursing care. It is the headquarters of all services for retarded adults within Region I. The center institution is comprised of residences, infirmary, administration buildings, central heating kitchen, medical administration unit, inspector's house, central heating installation and boilerman's house, assembly hall and canteen, physical medicine unit, units for occupational therapy and schools, dwelling departments for the staff, mortuary, and workshops.

The old buildings, which had been erected long before the more recent extension was started, have been changed into departments for occupational therapy, sheltered workshops, classrooms, etc. The new buildings are mostly one-story high.

There are 14 intramural residential units. None of these have dormitories; instead, they have rooms for one, two, or three adults, who are all allowed to have furniture of their own, and who all have a key to lock their cupboards and drawers.

Hospitallike wards are available for shorter observation periods and for treatment by a psychiatrist. Wards for cerebral palsied adults are provided for the physiotherapeutic treatment of motor handicaps.

Meals are served in dining rooms at small tables, and clients spend their leisure time in intimate living rooms or, if desired, in the hobby rooms after hours. Those whose condition may call for more individualized occupation normally use the hobby rooms during daytime for occupational activities.

During the day, the clients of 13 residential units are occupied with different activities, mostly with work in the sheltered workshops or the garden. More impaired residents living in larger units are treated on their own wards by occupational therapists.

The care system of the center provides for a high degree of individual education, even though the residents are adults; for long range planning of treatment, care, vocational training, and education; as well as for equal rights and opportunities for services for persons with all degrees of developmental handicap, no matter how severe these might be.

The educational facilities such as workshops and schools are in the center of the "village." A staff of specially trained teachers take care of the educational activities under the supervision of the director of education, who is one of the four members of the administrative team. Special teachers provide individual or small group programs for a maximum of six adults with similar learning disabilities and/or behavioral disturbances.

The staff at the workshops consists of skilled workers and/or care personnel, and the recreation centers employ specially trained personnel. The workshops provide for a differentiated occupational program, which, among other things, includes industrial production, ceramics, carpet weaving, musical instruments, woodcraft, textile-craft, and metalcraft.

Beyond the center institution we have in the Copenhagen area advisory clinics and counseling services, 4 relief homes, 8 sheltered workshops for a differentiated clientele and various types of work, 5 hostels, and 1 foster home. The number of additional extramural facilities is rapidly increasing.

The adult service has a staff of about 380 for intramural service and 150 for extramural services. In addition to part-time and consultant specialists, the total staff of 530 of both the extramural and intramural facilities consists of 7 medical doctors, 15 educators, 10 physiotherapists and occupational therapists, 38 administrative personnel, 190 nursing personnel, 19 gardners -sic-, domestic workers, etc., 195 unskilled workers and aides, 16 social workers, and 40 skilled workers.

Children's Hospital and the reorganized center institution Lillemosegard are the first modern residential facilities in the city of Copenhagen. In former days, all institutions for mentally retarded clients were located at remote places, which accounts for the fact, that there were relatively few facilities in the city of Copenhagen. However, the most interesting feature in the development of mental retardation facilities is probably an increasing number of small day residences and hostels--or group homes--so that center institutions are merely a part of a highly differentiated service organization with various other types of help and assistance to our clientele.

Costs

The total costs for the Danish Service for the Mentally Retarded in the fiscal year of 1966/67 amounted to nearly 350 million Dan.Kr. ($46,666,667;/$93,333,333). Beyond that amount, approximately 7 million U.S. dollars (purchasing power about 14 million U.S. dollars) is annually used for building activities. These costs must certainly rise to twice the afore-mentioned amount before the standard of our system is about as good as we would like it to be.

The annual expenses of the Copenhagen Center for Children, including external facilities, amount to 24.7 million Dan.Kr. ($3,293,333;/(6,586,667). The annual expenses of the adult center amount to 20.2 million Dan.Kr. ($2,693,333;/$5,386,667).