[Clerical work therapy at a psychiatric hospital - a hitherto neglected rehabilitation aid (author's transl)].

As a rule, rehabilitation programmes provided at state psychiatric hospitals and sheltered workshops in the Federal Republic of Germany suffer from a lack of training possibilities for patients from commercial, administrative and clerical occupations. The situation is the same for school pupils and students. With the introduction of a work therapy concentrating on clerical activities into the rehabilitation programme of a psychiatric hospital, patients from jobs requiring particular intellectual skills can benefit from an appropriate and graded programme designed to re-develop previously trained skills, orient in a new occupational field and provide the opportunity of trying out jobs. In particular cases this therapy also assumes the function of a useful form of occupational therapy and enlarges the range of available occupational and work therapeutic methods.