mental hygiene, the science of promoting mental health and preventing mental illness through the application of psychiatry and psychology. A more commonly used term today is mental health. In 1908, the modern mental hygiene movement took root as a result of public reaction to Clifford Beers Beers, Clifford Whittingham, 1876–1943, American founder of the mental hygiene movement, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1897.
..... Click the link for more information. 's autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself, which described his experiences in institutions for the insane. Beers adopted the name "mental hygiene" (suggested by Adolf Meyer Meyer, Adolf (ä`dôlf mī`ər), 1866–1950, American neurologist and psychiatrist, b. Switzerland, M.D.
..... Click the link for more information. ) to describe his ideas, and founded the Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene (1908) and the National Committee for Mental Hygiene (1909), the group which organized the National Association for Mental Health in 1950. Each of these groups sought to improve the quality of care for the mentally ill, to prevent mental illness where possible, and to ensure that accurate information regarding mental health was widely available. The National Institute of Mental Health has been responsible, since 1949, for the major portion of U.S. research in mental illness. The mental hygiene movement has accomplished, among other advances, wide reforms in institutional care, the establishment of child-guidance clinics, and public education concerning mental hygiene. See also psychiatry psychiatry (səkī`ətrē, sī–)
..... Click the link for more information. ; psychotherapy psychotherapy, treatment of mental and emotional disorders using psychological methods. Psychotherapy, thus, does not include physiological interventions, such as drug therapy or electroconvulsive therapy , although it may be used in combination with such methods.
..... Click the link for more information. ; psychosis psychosis (sīkō`sĭs)
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See G. N. Grob, Mental Illness and American Society, 1875–1940 (1983); P. Brown, ed., Mental Health Care and Social Policy (1985); T. Richardson, The Century of the Child (1989); E. F. Torrey, Nowhere to Go (1992).

mental hygiene

Science of maintaining mental health and preventing disorders to help people function at their full mental potential. It includes all measures taken to promote and preserve mental health: rehabilitation of the mentally disturbed, prevention of mental illness, and aid in coping in a stressful world. Community mental health acknowledges the relation between mental health, population pressures, and social unrest. It also deals with social problems, from drug addiction to suicide prevention. Treatment of the mentally ill through the ages has ranged from neglect, ill treatment, and isolation to active treatment and integration into the community, often in response to crusading reformers. Prevention of mental illness includes prenatal care, child-abuse awareness programs, and counseling for crime victims. Treatment includes psychotherapy, drug therapy, and support groups. One of the most important efforts is public education to combat the stigma still attached to mental illness and encourage those affected to seek treatment.