Progress in Mental Health

Ever since "Snake Pit" dramatized the problems of a mental institution, the public has slowly become more and more aware of the forgotten patients and the startling statistics existing in mental hospitals throughout the nation. Recently, three actions have put the problem in sharper focus: a Harvard volunteer program, a state-wide report, and a national foundation grant, each in different ways, have shown encouraging details within a generally bleak outline.

The volunteer program started last fall by a College senior demonstrates what a great contribution untrained students can make to a state mental institution. Over 200 College and Radcliffe volunteers have not only revitalized patients who had formerly rested almost undisturbed in long lines of chairs, but just as important, they are bringing back to the College a realistic picture of a mental hospital. They have, in short, proved that a well-organized volunteer program, can work and should, in the words of the hospital superintendent, "continue and expand."

The accomplishments of the volunteers are limited, however, and eventually come face to face with the tremendous lack of trained hospital personnel and adequate physical facilities. These problems, which volunteers cannot expect to solve, are the subject of a recent report by the American Psychiatric Association on mental hospitals in Massachusetts. Despite the large appropriation for mental hospitals--about 15 cents of every Massachusetts tax dollar--the report condemned most of the 11 state hospitals for failing to meet minimal personnel and plant standards.

The major finding of the report is that an additional 3,675 doctors, nurses, and attendants are needed in the state hospitals. The state Senate is now considering a bill to meet this manpower gap over a period of four years by appropriating about $3 million extra per year. This figure, already supported by the Mental Health Commissioner and passed by the House, is the absolute minimum required, and should be approved now and expanded in the future.

Even with volunteer programs and increased state budgets the basic problem in mental health remains unsolved: how to find both a cure and a prevention. The answer, pointed up by last week's Ford Foundation grant of $15 million, is research. Already over 700,000 mental patients fill more than half of all available hospital beds in the U.S., and the rate is on the increase. Yet less than one percent of all expenditure for mental illness now goes to research. Ford has shown the way that both public and private agencies should follow.

The overwhelming problems of mental disease offer unlimited angles for attack--by legislatures, foundations, as well as volunteers. An effort even greater than the present is needed to cope with the nation's largest health problem.