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With this need in mind, a nation-wide educational campaign was launched in May, 1946. Our Mental Hospitals . . . A National Disgrace (Life, May 6, 1946) was written to a large extent from materials gathered by the Foundation. Then followed an impressive list of pamphlets on mental illness and mental deficiency: Toward Mental Health (Public Affairs Pamphlet No. 120); Forgotten Children (The story of mental deficiency); From Folly ... To Fetters . . . To Freedom; If Your Child Is Slow; Will They Be Cured?; What To Look For in a Mental Hospital; Where Does Your State Stand?; and many others.

In the fall of 1946 a series of eight radio dramatizations were transcribed for nationwide use. These have proven an effective aid to local and state organizations which are conducting educational programs, and by April, 1947, had already been scheduled on more than a hundred and fifty broadcasting stations in this country and in Canada. Recordings of the programs are available tor training and educational purposes.

A monthly magazine, The Psychiatric Aid, is issued for attendants and other employees in mental hospitals and in training schools for the mentally deficient. An effort is being made to improve standards of ward care through making more adequate provisions for the training and compensation of institutional employees. Long overdue recognition for the valuable services rendered by staffs of mental institutions will, when given in a tangible way, result in much of the needed reform.

For those who work constantly with the patients, the Foundation has published an orientation to mental hospital work, the Handbook for Psychiatric Aides; for attendants in schools for the mentally deficient, a Handbook for Training School Attendants is being prepared.

The Legal Division of the Foundation is currently preparing briefs of the mental hygiene laws of the forty-eight states. When this project has been completed, the Division will prepare, in cooperation with medical and legal organizations, model provisions for reference and study in relation to future legislation. A service of consultation and recommendation with regard to legal provisions and administrative rules will be maintained.

The Education Division encourages and services summer and year-round college and church projects in mental institutions. This not only brings needed personnel to the institutions, but serves as an effective method of bringing the problems of the mentally handicapped before those who will be in a position to bring influence to bear for needed improvements. The Division maintains a field staff to assist in local community activities and to develop and extend the various educational services of the Foundation. Volunteer service to institutions is encouraged. Assistance is given, whenever possible, to institutions which are attempting to recruit personnel. Special research and educational projects are undertaken from time to time.

In a time of aroused national interest in the problems of mental disease and in the care of the mentally ill, it is essential to extend the services and influence of the Foundation. The history of the care and treatment of the mentally ill and mentally deficient is a spotted history, showing many advances, many regressions. Now, we believe, the substance, power and vision are all at hand to keep a wave of understanding and reform rolling; united efforts of all who share the concern will accomplish our objectives.

-- HAROLD BARTON,
Executive Secretary,
National Mental Health Foundation,
1520 Race St., Philadelphia 2, Pa.
APRIL, 1947.

NATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH FOUNDATION, INC.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Roger N. Baldwin
Mary McLeod Bethune
Mrs. William H. Biester, Jr.
Dr. Jacob Billikopt
Anton T. Boisen
Earl D. Bond, M.D.
Mrs. Walter A. Craig
Mrs. LaFell Dickinson
Kermit Eby
Mordecai W. Johnson
Mrs. J. Barclay Jones
Rufus M. Jones
Al Paul Letton
Orie O. Miller
Arthur E. Morgan
A. Douglas Oliver
Clarence E. Pickett
Samuel Radbill
Owen J. Roberts
Louis W. Schneider
Dr. D. R. Sharpe
Walter W. Van Kirk
Mary Jane Ward
M. R. Zigler

PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS

James Lewald, M.D.,
Superintendent,
District Training School,
Laurel, Maryland

William Draper Lewis,
Director,
The American Law Institute

Karl Menninger, M.D.,
Manager,
Winter General Hospital,
Topeka, Kansas

Mrs. Elizabeth Ross,
Psychiatric Social Worker

Lauretta Bender, M.D.,
Associate Professor of Psychiatry,
New York University

Earl D. Bond, M.D.,
Administrative Director,
Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Hospital

R. H. Felix, M.D.,
General Chief,
Mental Hygiene Division,
U. S. Public Health Service

Charles A. Zeiler, M.D.,
Director,
Department of Mental Health,
State of Michigan

NATIONAL SPONSORS

Chairman, Owen J. Roberts
Daniel Blain, M.D.
Pearl Buck
Mrs. LaFell Dickinson
Helen Gahagan Douglas
Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick
Mrs. Louis Gimbel
Sheldon Glueck
William Green
Helen Hayes
Rev. John Haynes Holmes
Rufus M. Jones
Bishop W. A. Lawrence
Henry B. Luce
Thomas Mann
Adolf Meyer
Anne Morgan
Arthur Morgan
Felix Morley
Reinhold Niebuhr
J. R. Oppenheimer
Thomas Parran
James G. Patton
Claude Pepper
Clarence E. Pickett
Daniel A. Poling
Percy Priest
Walter P. Reuther
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt
Lessing J. Rosenwald
Mrs. Harry S. Truman
Dr. Henry P. Van Dusen
Richard Walsh
Gregory Zilboorg