A collection of essays on public assistance work in the United States and the ways in which aid may be given. Contents:

“Public Assistance in the United States,” Arthur Dunham

“Who Shall Be Granted Public Aid? How Much? In What Form?” Donald S. Howard

“Dealing with People in Need,” Margaret E. Rich

“Problems of Health and Medical Care,” Dora Goldstine

“Tying in with the Community,” Gertrude Vaile

“Public Assistance and Social Work,” Russell H. Kurtz

Russell H. Kurtz was the editor of the Social Work Year Book.

This 1961 book presents the findings of an empirical study that explored the attitudes and behaviors of patients who had experience with more than one way of organizing medical practice, and thereby sought to suggest some of the ways in which both lay and professional social structure figure in the utilization of medical care. The data are used to derive a tentative conceptual framework that takes account of structural as well as cultural factors in understanding the behavior of doctors and patients. The net result is a set of ideas that suggest the nature of the medical system that lies outside the walls of the hospitals, in direct contact with the community.

Eliot Freidson, New York University, and Montefiore Hospital

A systematic presentation of the aims, methods, and cautions to be observed in the field of music in welfare work, made for music educators and musicians in the institutional fields. It stems from the author’s experience as director of the Bureau of Mental Health of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Willem van de Wall was director of the Committee for the Study of Music In Institutions, and lecturer in the School of Music Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. Assisted by Clara Maria Liepmann.

This 1946 volume examines the systematic application of music as a means of occupational therapy and of recreation in hospitals in the first half of the twentieth century, particularly those for mental and nervous diseases. It stresses the need for professional collaboration between hospital workers and musician and presents a plan for integration of a music program into the hospital service.

Willem van de Wall was head of the Adult Education Section, Education Branch, Internal Affairs and Communications Division, Office of Military Government for Germany, United States.

Morbidity in the Municipal Hospitals of the City of New York was the result of a pilot study, undertaken by the Departments of Hospitals and Health of the City of New York in cooperation with the Russell Sage Foundation, to test a plan for hospital morbidity reporting and to evaluate data thus obtained. The study was concerned with procedures for collecting periodic morbidity data from hospitals and with analysis of the statistics of the 121,952 patients discharged from 31 municipal hospitals during a six-month experimental period. Here is a comprehensive analysis of in-patient data, covering race, sex, age, diagnosis, length of hospital stay, condition on discharge, surgical interventions, etc., presented in explanatory text and 56 tables. Including recommended specifications for initiating regular periodic morbidity reporting by all New York hospitals, including cost estimates. Previous experience in hospital morbidity reporting is also summarized.

Marta Fraenkel was assistant to the commissioner and director of medical statistics and records service in the Department of Hospitals, City of New York.

Carl L. Erhardt was director of the Bureau of Records and Statistics in the Department of Health, City of New York.

By virtue of its size, New York City was the first American city to encounter the large-scale health problems of rapid urbanization. As a result, it was forced to pioneer in areas of medicine and health, and to relate public health developments to political, economic, and social change.

A History of Public Health in New York City, 1866–1966, is the second of two volumes by John Duffy. The preceding volume traced the development of the sanitary and health problems of New York form the earliest Dutch times to the culmination of the nineteenth-century reform movement that produced the Metropolitan Health Act of 1866, the forerunner of the New York City Department of Health. In this book, Duffy provides a fascinating and beautifully documented short history of many important aspects of life in New York City over the 100 year period—sanitation, water, food, housing, schools, hospitals, clinics, health centers, diseases, medical care, and the general state of medicine. Chapters provide a narrative history of the major developments in the Health Department, followed by several topical chapters dealing with environmental conditions, epidemic diseases, the state of medicine, and maternal and child health.

John Duffy was Priscilla Aiden Burke Professor of History at the University of Maryland.

An examination of the rise and development of therapeutic care for mental illness, studying the activities involved in providing ward care to hospitalized mental health patients. This book came about as a result of a nationwide survey of patient care as provided in representative state and psychiatric hospitals, as well as an experimental project with the Boston Psychopathic Hospital to establish cooperative relations with a state and a neuropsychiatric Veterans Administration hospital in the vicinity, in order to test the applicability of principles and practices such as those used by it. In collaboration with Robert W. Hyde.

This book, published in 1956, is a comprehensive report of a study that was made of the needs of the elderly through a survey conducted at the Kips Bay-Yorkville Health Center in New York City. An essential need for old people, it argues, is an advisory and consulting service that would be an integral part of the official community health and welfare structure.

Bernard Kutner, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University

David Fanshel, Family and Children’s Service, Pittsburgh

Alice M. Togo, Cornell University Medical College

Thomas S. Langner, Cornell University Medical College