LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE FIRST SESSION ON S. J. Res. 46 A JOINT RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR AN OBJECTIVE, THOROUGH, AND S. 724 A BILL TO ESTABLISH A COMMISSION ON MENTAL HEALTH, AND TO S. 848 A BILL TO AMEND THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT, AS AMENDED S. 886 (Title VI) A BILL TO IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE BY ENCOURAGING MARCH 30 AND APRIL 13, 1955 Printed for the use of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare 61997 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1955 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES Bartemeier, Dr. Leo H., chairman of the council of mental health, Americal Medical Association _ _ Blain, Dr. Daniel, medical director, American Psychiatric Associa- Gorman, Mike, executive director, National Mental Health Com- Gross, Arthur J., L. L. B., Boston, Mass_ Hennings, Hon. Thomas C., Jr., United States Senator from the State Hobby, Hon. Oveta Culp, Secretary, Department of Health, Educa- tion, and Welfare accompanied by Dr. Robert H. Felix, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health; Mrs. Lucile Leone, Chief Nurse Officer of the Public Health Service; James H. Pearson, Director of the Division of Vocational Education, in the Office of Education; Assistant Secretary Boswell B. Perkins; Dr. Chester S. Keefer, special assistant for health and medical affairs; and Dr. Leonard A. Scheele, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service_ Purtell, Hon. William A., United States Senator from the State of Diamond, Dr. Oscar K., Willard, N. Y., to Hon. William A. Griffin, Dr. D. P., Bridgeport, Conn., to Hon. William A. Harris, Dr. Herbert F., chief psychiatrist, Hamberg Memorial Infirmary, Cambridge, Mass., to Hon. William A. Purtell, Jacobs, Albert C., president, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., to Hon. William A. Purtell, March 14, 1955. Lane, Mrs. Marie D., Washington representative American Public Welfare Association, to chairman, March 31, 1955--- Leake, Chauncey D., executive director, medical branch, the Uni- versity of Texas, Galveston, Tex., to Hon. William A. Purtell_ Osborn, Stanley H. commissioner, Department of Health, State of Connecticut, to Hon. William A. Purtell, February 25, 1955-- MENTAL HEALTH WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1955 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTH OF THE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m. in the old Supreme Court chamber, United States Capitol Building, Senator Lister Hill (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Hill (chairman), Lehman, McNamara, Purtell, and Bender. Also present: Stewart E. McClure, staff director; Roy E. James, minority staff director; William G. Reidy, and John S. Forsythe, professional staff members. Chairman HILL. The subcommittee will come to order. This morning the Subcommittee on Health of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare is to consider a joint resolution and three bills. They all deal with the one subject which in its cost, both in dollars and in human misery, seems to be far outstripping every other problem in the field of health. I refer to the problem of mental illness. One of these bills is Senate Joint Resolution 46, which was sponsored initially by 30 Senators and which 2 more Senators have asked to cosponsor since the measure was introduced. Senate Joint Resolution 46 represents a rather unusual legislative device. It is a joint resolution rather than a bill. It was drafted in that form inasmuch as approximately four-fifths of its contents consists of whereases and only one-fifth of substantive legislation. That in turn is because the whereas clauses set forth, I believe, in most dramatic and alarming form, the multiplicity of most demanding reasons which force us to take prompt action to correct the situation they describe. The action they require, while not simple, can be simply stated. Among other things, the whereas clauses in the bill point out that each and every day of the year some 750,000 individuals afflicted with mental ailments are in hospitals or mental institutions in the United States. They point out that 46 out of every 100 hospital beds in the United States is occupied by a victim of mental illness, and they point out that in addition to the heartbreak and suffering that lies behind these figures, the cost of mental illness alone to the taxpayers of the Nation is now over one billion dollars a year and is increasing at a rate of $100 million each and every year. These and other unchallenged facts set forth in the whereas clauses of Senate Joint Resolution 46 can lead but to one conclusion-that we must undertake a thoroughgoing reevaluation of everything we are doing, of everything |