responsibility to provide the personnel to meet the problems of these migratory families. Time does not permit the use of the vast statistics available on the need of the farming communities older citizens. Suffice it to say, Mr. Chairman, the average farmer in this land is now 54 years old and approaching his age of need. Despite the vast increase in knowledge of mental health and mental retardation, it is estimated there are in the United States 5,400,000 retarded children and adults. We have 777,000 institutionalized persons who are mentally diseased or defective. Our hospitals have been judged to have less than 50 percent of the nursing and social worker staff they need. As a recent study has strongly suggested that environmental conditions play the major part in producing mental health, community mental health programs must be greatly expanded. Since even the mentally retarded can lead productive lives if given continued personal warmth and understanding, the shortage of valued personal service in this field is a national scandal. Among our 285,000 American Indians living on reservations, the continued dependency on the Federal Government, coupled with the minimal level of existence and high rate of communicable diseases indicates that despite Federal efforts much remains to be done in working with Indians to overcome their apathy and restore a sense of dignity long denied. Many Indians exist on a family income of less than $500 per year. The need is evident for professional service personnel to live among the Indian tribes in situations contributing to mutual understanding. Jails, reformatories, and prisons throughout much of the Nation are filled with individuals desperately in need of basic education and training. Our jails alone hold 100,000 persons. In many of these institutions illiteracy and absence of skills remain dangerously high, not complying with the needs of today's labor market. Volunteers can be of immense assistance in attacking the kinds of problems described above. To be effective these problems must be approached on a local basis; thus, the problem of recruiting volunteers is primarily a local one. However, the current supply is inadequate to the demand. The role of the Federal Government in facing this issue must be one of example and technical assistance to local communities. In closing, Mr. Chairman, we would like to comment that we have a great disparity in this country between social needs and their fulfillment, and because we feel that this bill can lessen this imbalance, we urge strongly that it be sent to the Senate at the earliest possible date. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I thank you. Mr. TRUITT. Thank you, sir. Before Senator BURDICK. The next witness is Mr. Dean Conrad. Mr. Conrad commences I would like to advise the members of the subcommittee that he comes from Bismarck, N. Dak. His parents were among my dearest friends, and because of that it is a pleasure for me to welcome him here today. STATEMENT OF DEAN CONRAD, STUDENT RELIGIOUS LIBERALS Mr. CONRAD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to be able to be here this afternoon to testify before this subcommittee on behalf of Student Religious Liberals, the Unitarian Universalist College organization. Several students from our organization have participated in service programs sponsored by a branch of our parent body, the Universalist Service Committee. During the summer of 1961, I myself worked with a group of 11 other college students at a mental hospital in Hastings, Minn. After a rigorous 2-week orientation session we 12 students, representing both black and white races and several different denominations, took our place among the staff of the hospital. We were given access to the case histories of the patients with whom we had daily contact and were encouraged to study the past experiences of these patients. Each student was assigned to several mildly regressive patients with whom he spent a major portion of his time during the summer. The objective here was to establish a patient-worker relationship which could be transferred to a permanent staff member after our departure. We worked in all departments of the hospital, but our main emphasis was on recreational and occupational therapy. Our presence in the hospital allowed the recreational department to expand its outdoor activities greatly during the summer months. Our financial compensation for a 46-hour week was far below what any of us could have earned elsewhere. Our objective in undertaking this project was not financial gain but the deeper personal satisfaction that comes from helping people less fortunate than ourselves. It is this dedication to service which would be the backbone of the National Service Corps. For this reason Student Religious Liberals passed a resolution last February in favor of the formation of a National Service Corps. We feel such a corps. would be consistent with the humanitarian concept of our faith. This summer the Universalist Service Committee has more than 50 college students in four different mental hospitals in the United States. With one exception, the units are interracial. All are interdenominational. In only one instance is financial compensation given to students. All the others receive only free room and board for their work. In spite of this necessarily voluntary approach, the service committee has had no difficulty in finding applicants. Rather, the problem has been to find positions for all those who wish to volunteer. During the several years of this particular program 300 to 400 students have worked in more than a score of hospitals throughout the country. The majority of these have worked under the voluntary system. I think this personal financial sacrifice, so acute during the college years, speaks for itself. It is unfortunate that the service committee's organizational limitations do not permit greater participation in this program. Student Religious Liberals envisions the National Service Corps as an increased opportunity to those of us who are willing to serve. Our hopes are not limited to work in mental hospitals. We want to see the corps at work in education and housing, on Indian Reservations, and in migratory labor camps. Another large area we expect the corps can participate in is job training and job placement for the high school dropout. We feel that the corps is needed to supplement, not replace, the type of service programs engaged in by our parent organization and other citizen groups. Mindful of the great success the Peace Corps has had abroad, Student Religious Liberals believes that the National Service Corps can prove equally successful. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator BURDICK. Mr. Conrad, your statement with reference to the service committee of your group is very interesting. You say there are more than 50 of these people who are now doing service work in various hospitals throughout the country? Mr. CONRAD. The Universalist Service Committee this summer has more than 50 employees in four different hospitals in the continental United States and one in Honduras. Senator BURDICK. Will you briefly describe the kind of work they do in these hospitals? Mr. CONRAD. They do occupational therapy, taking the patients to the occupational therapy wards and helping them make things like ashtrays, and recreational activities, specifically recreational activities during the summertime when you are able to be outdoors and play baseball and participate in sports. Senator BURDICK. In how many States is this activity now going on? Mr. CONRAD. The four hospitals in the United States are located in Lexington, Ky., Hastings, Minn., Napa, Calif., and Takoma, Wash. Senator BURDICK. Will you state briefly how this service is being received by the administrators of the hospitals? Mr. CONRAD. The Hastings, Minn., hospital has had this program since its inception at its hospital. This is the one I am most familiar with, the one I worked in. They are eager each summer to have the service group come because they add vigor to the permanent staff, and they allow the permanent staff to take a longer more relaxed vacation during the summertime. So we are greeted with great enthusiasm at least in Hastings, Minn. The other three hospitals are new ones this year. Senator BURDICK. I do not suppose that the student receives compensation? Mr. CONRAD. The Hastings Hospital does have compensation. When I was there it was at the rate of $50 a week minus $35 every 2 weeks for room and board, which came out to about $130 a month. The other three hospitals in the United States have just free room and board and no financial compensation. Senator BURDICK. Will you tell me if there is any difficulty in enlisting young men and women in this kind of work? Mr. CONRAD. As I said in my statement, the difficulty is not in enlisting them; the problem is that we have too many who apply. The problem is selection rather than enlistment. Senator BURDICK. You think this pattern which has been developed in this service committee of yours could be followed with the National Peace Corps? Mr. CONRAD. I certainly think so. Senator BURDICK. Mr. Conrad, you have given us some very interesting testimony. I am sure it will have great value when we get to the markup on this bill and when we consider it in its final form. Thank you very much. Mr. CONRAD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator BURDICK. The next witness will be Dr. Walter Barton, medical director of the American Pyschiatric Association. STATEMENT OF DR. WALTER BARTON, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION Dr. BARTON. Mr. Chairman, it is a pleasure to appear on behalf of the American Psychiatric Association in support of the National Service Corps bill. The treatment and care of the mentally ill and mentally retarded is, as you know, the primary concern of our association. Shortage of professional manpower in our field is by far the greatest handicap to advancing standards of treatment and care. In recent years our hospital administrators have sought to mitigate the effects of this shortage by organizing volunteer service programs. Many of them have been outstandingly successful. There is no doubt in our mind that the establishment of a National Service Corps could multiply in geometric proportions the benefits to be derived from the further elaboration of such program. I have submitted to your committee a psychiatric study and report in which our association solicited opinions of mental health authorities in public and private mental hospitals and some general hospitals throughout the country. Senator BURDICK. Without objection, the document will be made a part of the record. Dr. BARTON. Thank you, sir. I shall only refer to one or two matters in this and speak extemporaneously from that point on. About 85 percent of the administrators who replied were clearly in favor of establishing a National Service Corps and approximately 5 percent were opposed. We asked what they would use volunteers for; most of them indicated activity therapy of all types, social service, nursing, and general educational programs. I think any psychiatric agency is given the degree of support that the public demands. The volunteers through their dedicated actions combat the rejection and indifference toward mentally ill. The close contact that a volunteer has with mental patients gives him firsthand knowledge of the needs and through his idealism and his dedication he forcibly interprets to the public the remedial action suggested. I think one only has to look to the organization of parents for the retarded to see what vocal, visible community support can do in supplying necessities for the retarded. Unfortunately there has been no such organized voice for the mentally ill. They are without supporters and still have had much to combat in the way of rejection and indifference. We have also found that the quality of care of patients is improved under the prodding of volunteers. The values to the patients are very considerable. The friendship brought by someone who comes not because he is paid but because he cares and wants to come raises the self-confidence and the self-esteem of the person with whom the volunteer is forming a relationship. Volunteers also make it possible to extend programs handicapped by shortages of staff and move patients away from just shelter to activity that can in fact do something material for advancing the recovery of the patients. For many of my professional years I was the superintendent of a large public mental hospital and the student volunteers repeatedly demonstrated what can be accomplished just through this useful energy and enthusiasm. The frustrated professional sometimes steps over the problems as unsolvable. For example, one of my very distinguished patients had resided in a confined ward under lock and key for many years. Two young ladies from Jackson College, without permission from the nurses but with the consent of the doctor on the ward who gave them full authority to do what they wanted to do and to give close personal attention to the patient, took that patient out of doors. They also brought in a guitar that the patient had once played. And with the recreational activity in the open, out of doors, in the yard, and playing on the guitar, the disturbed behavior of the patient diminished. The attendants were at first very resentful of the intrustion of volunteers who could accomplish things that they could not accomplish. I might say that this case went on to a very favorable conclusion. Some of them do not go as far as this. This patient recovered enough to go home as a consequence of the direct interference of these two volunteers in what had been a custodial program. Then there are also some values to the volunteers themselves. There is community approval for this type of activity. Students learn a great deal about human behavior when they see patients in operation. It gives life to what they have read in their books. Also to a person who is related to machines or factories or office work it gives a kind of personal cause and it is very gratifying to have someone dependent upon them. A few of them have also been recruited into the health professions. With the shortages what they are, this has been a very decided advantage. In the Harvard-Radcliffe program a number of professionals we see coming through now have at one time or another been students in the volunteer program. There is certainly a great need for patients to have such help; the energy and example of dedicated idealists does much to promote improvement in the program. What is really very significant, I think, is that this brings the community into the hospital and gives the community some sense of responsibility. Retaining local supervision and direction, as the bill provides, brings the interest of the whole community into the hospital, a most welcome development. Thank you very much. Senator BURDICK. Thank you very much, Doctor. The essence of your testimony is exceeded only by your modesty. I would like to call the attention of my colleagues on the committee to the fact that you have a very distinguished background. I find that you are medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, associate professor of psychiatry, Boston University College of Medicine since 1952, member of the board of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, 1962, lecturer in psychiatry, Tufts University College of Medicine, 1960, past president of the APA, 196162, superintendent of the Boston State Hospital. In education: B.S., M.D., University of Illinois. Training in psychiatry and neurology at the Worcester, Massachusetts State Hos |