Postal Publicity for Mental Health

ONE might not immediately associate postage stamps with the promotion of mental health ?although philately as a strain-relieving pastime is not without its therapeutic value?but stamps have long since acquired a wider significance than Sir Rowland Hill could ever have envisaged. They have become established as miniature advertising posters, exemplifying on world-wide correspondence an immense variety of occasions and subjects, among which mental health has been recognised by several overseas postal authorities. Although the 1963 colourful new designs may indicate a change in policy, our own G.P.O. has been generally cautious in its choice of commemorative stamp themes. Postal publicity to World Mental Health Year was, however, authorised in the form of a special slogan postmark used at 120 main post offices during July and August 1960. Foreign (postal administrations gave mental health .their more direct "stamp of approval". Thus the Netherlands, l. example, issued two special stamps in 1960, publicising World Mental He^ Year and paying tribute to the pioneer work of Johannes Wier (1515 and J. C. Schroeder van der Kolk (1792?1862), by reproducing their portrf ̂ The Postal Service of the Netherlands Antilles can now claim the unj^ distinction of having made two special stamp issues specifically devoted ^ mental health. The first, anticipating the homeland by ,three years, was relea5 la in 1957. Strikingly produced in brown, black and yellow, it showed a ^ watching the rising sun of mental health over the island of Aruba, where First Caribbean Mental Health Conference was held in March 1957.