OCR Text |
Show turnout of more than one million mil-lion visitors proved to the hospitalized hos-pitalized mentally ill that their friends and neighbors do care. At the same time, Operation Friendship gave these visitors a better understanding of the men tally ill and demonstrated the hopeful outlook in the treatment of mental illness. An American Legion grant of $25,000 in 1950 helped to establish estab-lish a national organization to cope with the problem of mental health. A change in the nation'. mental health picture Waa ? corded in 1956 when the numbed of patient days in the nation-mental nation-mental treatment centers showed a drop and has declined steadKv in succeeding years. 6leacllly LEGION TO OBSERVE MENTAL HEALTH WEEK Many American Legion Posts throughout the nation will join in the 12th observance of Mental Men-tal Health Week, May 1-7, which again will center around Operation Opera-tion Friendship, the project inaugurated in-augurated last year to bring hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of visitors to mental hospitals during Mental Health Week. The American Legion, through ! its child welfare and rehabilitation rehabilita-tion programs, recognized early the growing mental health prob- ' lem of the nation and has encouraged en-couraged and supported -continuously the efforts of the National Nation-al Association for Mental Health and the National Institute of Mental Health, co-sponsors of the week-long observance. With the support of The American Amer-ican Legion and other national organizations, Operation Friendship Friend-ship succeeded in its first year beyond all expectations. The I |