EDITORIAL COMMENT

OPEN TItE DOOR, DOCTOR!

It i s such a commonplace observation: in psychiatric circles that the problems of the returning serviceman have greatly increased public sym- pathy for, and understanding of, the mentally ill that only its vast ira- portance can justify its repetition here.

Voluntee, rs under the direction of the Red Cross and other organiza- tions served in our army and navy hospitals during the years of fighting. Many are continuing so to serve in the hospitals of the Veterans' Admin- istration and there are prospects today that community interest can be enlisted to the point where such service may become general m our civil mental institutions. The Red Cross, os course, and the variotts associations of former servicemen and their auxiliaries took an active interest in the Veterans' Administration hospitals following the first World War.

So, too, the veterans' division of: Kings Park State Hospital was benefited for years before Wor ld War II by the interest and generosity of these people. The movement had extended' to other hospitals even before the second World War. Gray Ladies from the Qt~eens chapter of the Amer- ican Red Cress conducted the patients' library at Creedmoor from 194'0 to i944. A group of Gray Ladies has been active for some months re- centlY at Brooklyn State Hospital. A Gray Lady who is a Professionally trained librarian has, with the help of four others, taken over the service and management of the patients' library at Brooklyn.. Another group visits the wards in the sick, infirm and acute treatment bu~iiding with portable pianos for a musical program. The workers lead group singing, encourage the patients to play the piano or other musical instruments, and on some wards there is dancing. One Gray Lady at Bro0Myn has taken over the work of assisting the hospital's recreation Worker in conducting Wednesday afternoon" 'consolation parties" for patients who do not have visitors. She acts as a hostess, encourages the patients to take an active part in the parties' programs and has brought friends who have enter- tained for the patients.

It seems to us that this sort of community activity is something deserv- ing of wide encouragement. Comparatively few of today's large institu- tions are so remote from population centers that effective community par- ticipation in the hospital life is impractical. We conceive that such par- ticipation is good for the hospital and good for the community. It is an

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extension in a more active form of the general program of mental hygiene and of furthering community understanding of mental illness and mental hospitals which the Department of Mental Hygiene has been systematically promoting for years. This is a movement which, however familiar to us, is comparatively new as a general phenomenon.

Dr, Samuel W. Hamilton, then mental hospital advisor, United States Public Health Service, remarked in a paper ~ last year: "Back in 1920 I visited a hospital in a central state whose superintendent employed no peo- ple from the nearby village. He preferred employees from 40 to 50 miles away, he said, because they did not have friends downtown and would not be gossiping about the hospital. Indeed when the wife of a physician ac- cepted an invitation to join the Ladies' Aid Society of her church, her hus- band was informed that she must break this connection or he must seek another post ."

And we have heard, much more recently than 1920, mental hospital phy- sicians evidence embarrassment over their profession and express their children's embarrassment at having to live on hospital grounds among the mentally disordered.

~Ve conceive that it is through such work as has been undertaken by the Gray Ladies that a healthier attitude and a }figher state of morale can be promoted. \Vie are acquainted with a woman who, all through the war, went as an entertainer to a large army hospital where she played the piano and led the patients in singing on closed, as well as open, wards--a service she is now continuing at the veterans' hospital which succeeded this army hospital. This woman had strong personal reason to fear mental disorder and mental hospitals, for her mother had died in one, but her education and her understanding have increased to the point where she is now a one-woman campaign for mental hygiene. Being an out-spoken and vigor- ous person, she has a lecture all ready on the subject whenever a friend asks why she should waste so much time on "those nuts ."

One may imagine that the Gray Ladies of the Brooklyn program and elsewhere are doing the same thing. We could not have better mission- aries for the understanding of our hospitals or the improving of them, for these people are volunteers. They have no vested interests in our institu- tions, while we are always s~spect.

The great need for improvement in even the best of our public mental hospitals--alnong which we are pleased to believe New York's are--can only be met by concerted and vigorous public support. The volunteer

~The place of the pub]ic mental hospital in the community, l~ental I-Iealth Bulletin. Department os Welfare. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Vol. 24~ No. 3, October 15~ 1946.

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worker in a civil mental hospital works with the doctors, nurses and ward personnel. She meets the patients, learns of their troubles and complaints, sees the conditions under which they are living. It is safe to say that our hospitals would be much better staffed, would be much better run and would be much more comfortable places than they are today if the gen- eral public were familiar with them and appreciated their necessities. The voluntary hospital worker knows all these things and she is in a position to campaign powerfully--backed up by first-hand knowledge--for better- ment. This in itself is no small benefit.

The benefit of the work within the hospital is more concrete and easier to assess. At Brooklyn the belief is expressed that the circulation of books for recreational reading among the patients has been increased about four times by the Gray Ladies' endeavors. From the same hospital comes the report that on the wards where the musical programs have been given some of the patients have even left their beds for the first time in many days-- under the influence of the music. The ward personnel further report that in their opinion there has been improvement in the morale of the patients and a diminution in the behavior problems on the wards.

In an official statement the view was expressed: " F o r these reasons the staff is rather enthusiastic about this type of endeavor, would recommend it wherever it is possible and ask for an enlargement of the program here."

We can only echo this conclusion and predict that increasing contacts with the community will gain friends and supporters for the institution.