The Attendant's Guide: By Edith M. Stern in collaboration with Mary E. Corcoran, R.N. New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 1945. 104 pp.

This little book fills a long felt need. The attendant in the mental hospital spends more time with the patient than the physician, the nurse, or any other member of the hospital's recognized therapeutic staff, yet few hospitals have made any special effort to give the attendant an awareness of the help he can give to patients by understanding their needs and handling them wisely.

The Attendant's Guide does this very thing. It dignifies the work of the attendant, points out the satisfactions of the job and shows that by giving due consideration to the patient's interests and welfare, the attendant's work can be most easily carried out. The book is divided into three parts.

Part I orients the attendant to the setting of the mental hospital in order to offset the natural anxiety he may feel about working with people who say such strange things and behave in such a peculiar way. Practical suggestions are given as to how to handle these ideas of the patient in such a way as to show him due respect and yet not intensify his bizarre thinking. Ward duties are outlined and general suggestions are given as to the best way to accomplish what is to be done.

In Part II there is a discussion of various types of patients—not according to diagnosis, but according to the way their illness affects them and what the attendant can do for them. This is written with sympathetic understanding both of the patients and the problems presented by the manifestations of their illness.

In Part III the future of the job is discussed in a realistic way, showing the value of such an experience in handling people, but stating that as an attendant future satisfactions will be found in