The baseline film is also titled The Toymakers, and was produced by the Office of Economic Opportunity. ca1963 (sd., b&w, 16mm), a Television Documentary that surveys mental disabilities at the Selinsgrove State School and Hospital in Pennsylvania.

 

The documentary compares the institutional experiences of youth with mild mental disabilities with others who have severe mental disabilities. Elderly patients make and repair toys, young patients attend classes in motivation and recreational activities, and volunteer nurses work with disabled children. The film provides compelling insight into the need for close ties between the community and the mental health of its constituents. It proved to be the perfect bed to showcase the love lost for social services and healthcare for all over the decades.

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PLEASE NOTE: Some of the frames use the once-accepted but now disfavored term ‘retarded’ to describe people with developmental disability. We have kept the language intact for historical clarity.