Here is a unique and important volume that pays tribute to the contributions of the National Mental Health Association to the field of prevention.

For more than 80 years, the National Mental Health Association has been a major force in the advancement of the field of prevention. It has pursued an impressive three-pronged mission of promoting health, preventing mental illness, and improving the care and treatment of persons with mental illnesses through advocacy at all levels of state and national government and the development of prevention programs.

The National Mental Health Association: Eighty Years of Involvement in the Field of Prevention traces the history of the association’s involvement in prevention back to the first decade of the century. Mental health professionals from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, South Carolina, New York, and Illinois describe some of the diverse activities relating to prevention in which local associations are involved, such as public education, direct intervention, and legislative advocacy. In addition, a large part of the volume is devoted to in-depth descriptions of seven programs of sufficient distinction and merit to have received the association’s prestigious Lela Rowland Prevention Award, which recognizes outstanding prevention programs in the area of mental health.

This volume should be read by the hundreds of thousands of Mental Health Association members, as well as community psychologists, social workers, and professionals in mental health centers and state mental health departments.