Mental diseases; a public health problem by James Vance May

Interest in mental disorders is no longer confined to the relatively small number of persons whose duties or family ties bring them into daily contact with the mentally ill. Disorders that so profoundly affect human conduct were certain, sooner or later, to attract the attention of those who are interested in the study of human behavior in its broadest relations or who have special responsibilities with reference to the conduct of individuals and require all the information that they can secure on factors that modify the reactions of men, women or children in the social environments in which they live and die. Uncertain of themselves until they made sure of the sciences upon which their future work was to develop, social workers since the commencement of organized social work in this country demanded of the sciences concerned with the human mind some information that might aid them in dealing with the difficult problems in human adaptation which they found constituted the chief part of social work.