MENTAL HEALTH

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 152, 24 December 1929, Page 8

MENTAL HEALTH

M'OKLD CONFERENCE

FIRST IN HISTORY

For the first time in. the history of the world tho important matter of mental hygiene will be dealt with at an international congress, which is to be held in Washington in May next. The proceedings will be opened by tho President of the United States. Twentyfour countries will be represented, including Prance, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Japan, the United States, Great Britain, and tho following British Dominions: I Canada, Australia, South Africa, and, it is hoped, Kew Zealand. The leading authorities on mental diseases in all these countries will attend tho meeting. The urgent necessity, of formulating a; definite and practical programme in regard to the treatment of mental diseases has been stimulated recently by the publication of tho report of the joint committee from the Board of Control and tho Board of Education upon the subject of mental deficiency. From this document there stands out the salient fact that there are in England and Wales at least 300,000 persons who are- mentally defective, representing 8 per 1000 of the total population. The American National Committee on Mental Hygiene was founded in 1909 by Clifford W. Beers, who, having himself suffered serious mental breakdown, felt constrained to devote the rest of his life to ameliorating the lot of thoso who suffer from similar illness. From America the movement has spread throughout the world, and ia largely responsible for the more educated public opinion which exists to-day in regard to this, probably the most distressing malady which' afflicts the human, race.

ORGANISED PROGRAMME OF WOKK.

The value which Groat Britain attaches to .the conference may be gathered from the fact that amongst the members of tho organising committee are Sir Hubert Bond, Chief Commissioner of the English Board of Con.trol; Sir Mauricjj Craig, the famous alienist; Dr. Hamilton Marr, Principal Commissioner for Scotland; and Professor George Robertson, head of the well-known Mental Diseases Hospital at Edinburgh. , . In a message issued to all the members of the Organising Committees of the different countries, the purposes of the conference are summarised as follows: Emphasis is laid upon the expectation that the international conference will be not merely an occasion for a conferenco among workers in mental hygiene and related fields in different parts of the world—which itself would be an' important achievement—but will be the beginning of an organised programme of work on an international scale for years to come. It is hoped that a practical result of the congress •will bo the adoption of such a programme for the years immediately ahead, adapted to tho state of development and needs of tho individual countries, and subject to the guidance, co-ordinating services, advice, and assistance to be given by the permanent International Committee of Mental Hygiene that will be founded when tho congress is held.

Tho congress, as already indicated, is to be essentially international in character, and the aim is to secure in every country tho most active participation in the conference. The reputation for progressive social and humanitarian legis-' lation (particularly during and following the period when Mr. Seddon was Premier and Sir Joseph Ward was the first Minister of Health) justifies the confident anticipation that New Zealand will, in common 'with tho sister Dominions, be represented at this congress, which will ,deal with what Mr. George Vincent, president of the Eockefeller Foundation has described as "the most complicated, difficult, and in many ways the most important of the hygienes— mental hygiene.' •