A Survey of the Bedford Mental Hygiene Clinic, From 1944 to 1952

Arthur Edward Spingarn, Fordham University

Abstract

Since 1885, when the first out-patient clinic for tie mentally ill was organized in Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, the progress of mental hygiene clinics in the United States has been encouraging. Today, there is hardly a public or endowed mental hospital in the courtly without at least one mental hygiene clinic in the community, in addition to an out-patient department on its own grounds.There were three great names in American History which contributed most importantly to this success than any others. These people were Benjamin Rush, the father of American psychiatry, Dorothy Lynd Dix, who conducted a crusade, on a country-wide basis, to obtain more humane treatment for the mentally and emotionally handicapped, and Clifford Beers, the driving force behind the foundling of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Beer’s contributions probably were the ones striking closest to "the man in the street" because of this man’s great role in attempting to bring more common understanding and familiarity of mental illness home to the average person.

Subject Area

Mental health|Health care management|Social work

Recommended Citation

Spingarn, Arthur Edward, "A Survey of the Bedford Mental Hygiene Clinic, From 1944 to 1952" (1952). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30557660.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30557660

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