Mental Health Planning for Social Action

MENTAL HEALTH PLANNING FOR SOCIAL ACTION. By George S. Stevenson. New York, The Blakiston Division, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1956. 358 pp. $6.50. Few, if any, have done as much to advance the cause of mental health as the author of this book for which so many have waited with keen anticipation. Dr. Stevenson, with rare insight and judgment, has presented the challenge that "there is more scientific knowledge and technique for dealing with mental illness than is now being used." Incidentally, he observes that, in spite of some strong encouragement from within the field of public health, especially at Yale and Johns Hopkins and at several of the larger foundations, public health officials have been slow to take the initiative in developing the potentialities for mental hygiene. Even though schools of public health have added mental health to their curricula, the author notes that it is too often not sufficiently designed to develop skill in meeting the everyday tasks of public health but is simply a set of lectures in psychiatry as given in medical schools. Dr. Stevenson examines the mental hospital and makes constructive suggestions about how it can increase its contribution to mental health. He gives test questions for a hospital's success, tells why the clinic should come under the immediate authority of the hospital, suggests how the mental hospital can attract more personnel, and indicates how to use volunteer service for public education, besides discussing the place of government in mental health. The volume is divided into five parts, dealing with basic considerations and program planning, the restoration of mental health including provisions for the mentally deficient, the protection of mental health, elevation of mental health, and special considerations, including world mental health. There is a useful section on visual aids and a good index. The book is intended for all who work and plan for mental health. The author's hopes should be realized, namely, that "the book will help them to achieve a perspective on the whole field--the common threads that run through it, and the interrelationship and interdependence of its parts-thereby enabling them to do more for mental health." IRA V. HISCOCK