Jersey Y.m.h.a. ‘mental Clinic’ is Established

The first social guidance bureau to be established as part of the work of a Jewish Community Center, has been organized by the local Y.M.Y.W.H.A. and will start functioning immediately, according to Harry S. Albert, executive director of the “Y.”

The bureau will operate under the direction of competent physicians. The clinic will have besides a physician in charge, a consulting psychiatrist, an advisory committee, a publicity and activities committee and advisory board. Trained field workers will be employed.

The work of the bureau will be concentrated in the Y.M.H.A. and will be open only to persons who cannot afford to pay for the treatment they need.

“The bureau will not compete with practitioners of medicine in this community,” said Mr. Albert. “This principle will be emphatically maintained. A list of ethical practitioners of medicine in the community will be made available to anyone applying for medical aid. This list shall be supplied by the Country Medical Society and no physician shall be given preference over another.”

Dr. Theodore Rothman, head of the neurological clinic at the Paterson General Hospital and member of the Barnert Hospital staff, will be physician in charge. Consulting psychiatrist will be Dr. H. Pelham Jewett, of New York, and Lead of the Montclair Hygienic Clinic.

The bureau has been divided into two departments, the bureau of educational publicity and the bureau of medical psychology.

“We will use adequate methods in the correction of mental disease among the poor,” said Miss Belle F. Bernstein, director of women’s activities at the Community Centre. “Every person will be investigated and checked. The social worker doing the investigation will determine the economic status. The executives shall then develop a method of re-checking the economic status.”