Hp
for
Mental
Health
By KEN ALLEN
Editor, Albert Lea Evening Tribune
Minnesota clinic finds that counseling
family members together is effective.
Most mentally ill persons don't need hospitalization, but that was once the only treatment
available until communities like Albert Lea, Minn., showed the way with outpatient clinics
WHEN president KENNEDY pre
sented his mental-health program
to Congress earlier this year, he could
have been describing a system of psy
chiatric medicine that has been in effect
in Albert Lea, Minn., for a dozen years.
The President's proposals parallel the ex
perience of the Southern Minnesota Mental
Health Center, which provides psychiatric and
psychological service for 50,000 Minnesotans.
It was in July of 1950 that the members of the
Freeborn County Public Health Nursing Service
Auxiliary learned from the state mental-health
commissioner that an outpatient psychiatric
clinic might be established in Southern Minne
sota. These women, guided by Maureen Wetch,
then women's editor of The Albert Lea Evening
Tribune, began a campaign to bring the clinic to
Albert Lea. They enlisted the help of physicians,
nurses, clergymen, and Tribune editors in their
campaign, later bringing in the Chamber of Com
merce and bewildered businessmen who scarcely
knew what they were promoting.
The City Council and the County Board of
Commissioners agreed to become cosponsors and
to appropriate small sums each year to pay rent
and incidentals mostly as a token of good faith.
The state took on the obligation of recruiting,
supervising, and paying the staff.
With a great deal of self-consciousness, the
clinic opened its doors to the public. The state
had been able to hire a clinical psychologist, a
psychiatric social worker, and a receptionist but
could provide a psychiatrist only one day a week.
A local advisory committee of citizens was
recruited. They met faithfully to hear staff re
ports, consult on problems, and offer suggestions.
Often aa not, decisions were baaed on instinct
because there was only scanty information in
even the scholarly journals.
For instance, there was Case No. 9. A 15-year-old
high-school girl was torturing her
self with psychological fears, eating too much,
and sneezing every few seconds while awake.
She had gone to 32 allopathic and osteopathic
physicians with no lasting results.
At the Center, the girl was given sedatives
and a nonconvulsive shock treatment. Soon she
was talking easily and freely to the psychiatrist
and she stopped sneezing for the first time in
100 days. She was put on a diet, taken from
school, and placed with a family to do what she
wanted to do be a domestic. Prognosis: good.
And there was "Sally." She was a capable and
energetic office worker in a factory. But she
dressed in run-down saddle shoes and covered
her ample figure with unbecoming "house"
dresses. The teasing of male coworkers set her
off on crying spells that were interfering with
her work. Her employer faced a hard choice:
dismissal or rehabilitation. He finally got her
to the Center by referral of her physician.
IN six weeks, Sally became a different person.
She lost a great deal of weight, began using
lipstick, and matched smart clothing with a new
personality. When the shop kidding started, she
gave as much as she took. Her efficiency rating
soared. Gone was the tearful Sally.
Farm people are often suspicious of the
sciences that deal with man's mind and its ail
ments, but here again the Center had some
fortunate experiences.
A farmer was brought to the local hospital
with all symptoms of a mental breakdown. A
hearing had been scheduled for a Monday so the
patient could be admitted to a state mental hos
pital. During a Sunday visit to the hospital, a
clinical psychologist asked to see the patient
To all outward appearances, the patient was un
balanced, but a closer look showed a fleck of
blood inside one eye. The psychologist called the
attending physician, and a more thorough ex
amination was made. As a result, a brain clot
was found and ultimately removed.
After surgery, the fanner told what had hap
pened. He had fallen backward from a tractor
and struck his head. He could remember nothing
from that point until he became conscious in
the recovery room. He's now farming 460 rich
Minnesota acres and paying taxes rather than
being a patient in a tax-supported institution.
L8 the successes and a few failures piled
up, the Center gained state-wide, then na
tional recognition. The United States Public
Health Service even sent social workers to study
the Center and to collect documentary evidence.
Of the Center's first 342 patients, only nine
had been sent on for institutional treatment.
"Savings to taxpayers are apparent," The Tri
bune said. "The cost of a patient in a state insti
tution is not less than J 1,000 a year."
As the years passed, the program emphasis
shifted. Currently, there is a drive on preventive
mental illness. Dr. Arthur Arnold, who now is
the full-time pyschiatrist at the Center, is teach
ing a course to physicians, and seminars are held
for nurses, teachers, and factory foremen.
From its experience of a dozen busy and fruit
ful years, the Southern Minnesota Mental Health
Center can advise the President and Congress to
move slowly. If they expect overnight results,
they are going to be frustrated.
And frustrations bring anxieties.
COVER:
Phoebe Dunn caught this Father's Day
duo a son trying to grow up strong like
his daddy, the latter striving to live up
to the image. Al Hirt, a big daddy with
a big family, is spotlighted on page 10.
Family
Weekly
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