Pioneering Health Care for Children with Disabilities: Untold Legacy of the 1916 Polio Epidemic in the United States

ABSTRACT

In 1916, the United States experienced its first polio epidemic, resulting in 6,000 deaths and 21,000 injured individuals. Medical practices were ill prepared to stop the disease and treat survivors. Historians have documented the creation of the polio vaccine during the 20th century, but less is written about efforts to provide rehabilitation services to children afflicted with polio. This research looked at Polio After-Care Committees, a new form of community practice that provided care to children with disabilities. The Committees worked to change community-level systems of care while providing medical care, demonstrating that new forms of community-based service organization could reach children.

KEYWORDS:

• Community organization
• disabilities
• public health
• service coordination
• social planning
• social welfare history

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, New York for the financial support of this research through its Grant-in-Aid Program.

Notes

^1. All monetary values in 2013 equivalents were calculated using the web site Measuring Worth (2014), retrieved from: http://www.measuringworth.com/.