Two recent conferences of major national import provide hopeful evidence that the United States is now girding itself for a comprehensive attack on the No. 1 health problem, that of mental and emotional health and illness. The first of these conferences, held in October, 1953, in Washington, D. C., was sponsored jointly by the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association to bring together, for a two day session, all private and governmental national groups with an interest and stake in the improvement of mental health and treatment of mental illness. The conference was attended by representatives of medicine, law, nursing, sociology, psychology, government, and all fields of education.
Among more than 40 organizations represented at the conference, a preliminary study showed that 15 were engaged in professional education and the setting of standards for professional workers, 15 were engaged in the preparation and distribution of publications concerned with