P.B.H. Lacks Means to Transport 400 Volunteers to Mental Hospital

Transportation difficulties have left the Mental Hospital Committee of Phillips Brooks House unable to cope with an enthusiastic turnout of pledged volunteers almost double the number who participated last year.

The only transportation facilities now available to take more than 400 volunteers to the Metropolitan State Hospital in Waltham are cars belonging to Committee members, who can usually accommodate only about 20 people per day.

Theoretically, about 80 should make the trip each day.

The seven members of the Executive Committee said yesterday that they are searching for funds to rent or buy a bus, and have already petitioned nine national charitable foundations at the suggestion of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.

Among the organizations they have approached is the Russell Sage foundation of New York, which recently made a grant to J. Lawrence Dohan '55, founder of the P.B.H. Mental Hospital program, for projected mental health study. The Committee is also soliciting the 51 million dollar Commonwealth Fund and the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.

Phillips Brooks House contributes $212 annually to the Mental Health Committee's budget, but this barely covers administrative expenses of the extensive program. Aun E. Rabinowitz '58, of the Executive Committee, said that a bus would cost $18 per day to rent and that as yet no financial means to cover the service had been apparent.

The Committee is also considering asking the Social Relations Department for "advice" on the problem. Though the Department has no funds directly applicable to the P.B.H. Mental Hospital program, some volunteers felt it may be able to influence a University or private donation.