An experiment in helping mentally handicapped men, women, and young people to lead normal working lives is to begin shortly in Northern Ireland. Twelve women and girls, aged 18 and over, will be taken out of special institutions, jobs will be found for them, and they will live in the ordinary community surroundings in a small hostel. The hostel will be in charge of a warden, who will be available to discuss personal problems that arise. The women and girls going into the first hostel are being transferred from special-care centres, where they have received expert training, and they will go out to work each day in the normal way. Some of them will work in local hospitals in the kitchens and laundries, and others may be placed in jobs with outside firms. If this experiment succeeds there will later be separate hostels for men.