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Epi-Habs have employed, for varying periods, a total of about 800 epileptics, have permanently placed about 100 in private industry. Safety records equal or top those of any efficiently managed plant. "I was concerned myself when I started," says Risch. "We put padding and plastic shields on all our equipment. Then we saw it wasn't necessary." One reason for the low accident rate: most epileptics receive an "aura" or mental warning, from one day to ten seconds before a seizure, enabling them to get clear of machines. In the last five years, Risch's Los Angeles Epi-Habs have had only 30 mishaps attributable to seizures—none of them perilous to life, limb or machine. The plants even won a 20% cut in workmen's insurance rates.
A "Sheltered Workshop?" In spite of Epi-Hab's accomplishments, it has its critics. The program director of the United Epilepsy Association, Dr. Harry Sands of New York, contends that efforts should be aimed at placing the epileptic directly in private industry rather than in a "sheltered workshop." To this Risch replies that industry resistance is strong, and that "by building up actual work records and work experience, Epi-Hab can build up the sort of confidence among industrial firms that is necessary to get an epileptic a secure job." But on one fundamental premise Sands and Risch are in complete agreement. Though no one knows why, epileptics who are working suffer far fewer seizures than those who are idle.
Last week, in the pink stucco Los Angeles plant, ex-Recluse Paul Cadwell sat hunched over his bench, expertly soldering wires to an electronic subassembly that the plant is turning out for Hughes Aircraft Co. Once racked by grand mal (severe) seizures thrice weekly, Cadwell is now hit only once or twice a month. Near by, a grizzled man with a cigarette dangling from pursed lips was drilling holes in aircraft aileron assemblies. At the downtown shop, the pace was being set by 21-year-old Jam's Newhouse, whose blonde ponytail popped like a whip as she slapped cardboard sheets over a metal matrix to form boxes. She used to have seizures every few days, now has them only every two or three weeks.