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A clearing house for the interchange of technical information among mental hospitals and other institutions which care for psychiatric patients in the United States and Canada will be established soon by the American Psychiatric Association, A.P.A. President George S. Stevenson, M.D., announced.
The new Mental Hospital Service (MHS) is made possible by a grant of $44,500 from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation established in 1918 by Mrs. Stephen V. Harkness. The grant is for a two year launching period. At the outset MHS services will be free to the mental hospitals that request them. After a suitable trial period, however, MHS will be made self-sustaining through subscription fees. MHS will function under the direction of Daniel Blain, M.D., who is also A.P.A. Medical Director with offices in Washington, D.C.
A monthly mental hospital news bulletin will be the keystone of MHS, Dr. Blain reported. The bulletin will report briefly but adequately news of current developments in clinical practices, hospital administration, community relations, legislation, architectural planning, accounting procedures, research,—and any and all other types of information which will help the hospitals improve patient treatment and care. Clients who wish detailed information about any item reported in the bulletin may call upon MHS to supply it. First issue of the bulletin will appear in January 1950.
A board of outstanding leaders in the mental hospital field and a large panel of technical consultants will advise MHS on the policy and content of the services Dr. Blain reported. “But the hospitals themselves will be the well springs of the information that is channeled through MHS”, he stressed. “MHS will serve their needs exclusively. They will be judge and jury in assessing its merit.”
Dr. Stevenson also announced that the Commonwealth Fund had granted the A.P.A. $10,000 to finance a new system of program planning and operation