Item is an undated review of the current Nova Scotia mental health system, as well as an outline of required changes to the system, compiled by Alexander Murchison in the early 1970s. The item provides a brief outline of present mental health programs and facilities in the province — the Cape Breton Mental Health Centre in Sydney, the Eastern Counties Mental Health Centre in Antigonish, the Pictou County Mental Health Centre in New Glasgow, the Cumberland County Mental Health Centre in Amherst, the Cobequid Mental Health Centre in Truro, the Funday [sic] Mental Health Centre in Wolfville, the Digby-Annapolis Mental Health Centre in Digby, the program at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital, and the South Shore Mental Health Centre in Bridgewater — as well as mental and public hospital services — Nova Scotia Hospital, Abbie J. Lane Memorial Hospital, Halifax County Hospital, and Kings County Hospital — and provides recommendations on how to improve the province-wide program addressing mental health. Item contains a few inked and whited-out corrections.
Item is a paper written by Alexander Murchison in December 1970, outlining the "acute psychiatric emergency" of school phobia, suggesting that it is more complicated than being simply "separation anxiety." He defines the phobia, outlines the clinical features and symptoms, discusses the role of separation in the condition, and addresses potential treatments.
File also contains copies of presentations given at the 23 May 1973 meeting: "Why an Alternate Family? (The Child and the Group Home," by Alexander Murchison; "The Orphan and Society," by Jean Paton-Kittson; "Social Services and the Group Home," by Frank Capstick; "Democratic Perspectives on Group Home Supervision," by Ronald L. Smith; "Houseparents Forum," by Mr. and Mrs. Salvador Renaldo; "Public Relations in a Group Home Program," by A.S. Kyte; and "Funding of Group Homes," by Timothy T. Daley.
File contains printouts of computer code, graphs comparing the relationship between mental health and acculturation, and a study by Frederic Ilfeld titled "Acculturation levels and mental health of 120 educated Yoruba women."
File contains an appendix (Appendix F) outlining procedures in comparing psychiatric evaluators' thought processes and conclusions surrounding the mental health of respondents of the Cornell-Aro study. File also includes information on analysis coding and a chart outlining mental health symptom statistics.
File consists of a memo from Jane Murphy to Cornell staff regarding an analysis of the reliability of literacy data among male Yoruba study subjects and its effects on future analysis.
File contains a computer printout dataset of frequency distribution comparison between Jane Murphy's and Alex Inkeles' data. Also includes copies of several of Inkeles' published articles: "The fate of personal adjustment in the process of modernization," "The OM scale: a comparative socio-psychological measure of individual modernity," "Some social psychological effects and noneffects of literacy in a new nation," "The modernization of man," and "Making men modern: on the causes and consequences of individual change in six developing countries."
File contains a copy of Hudson's study and a progress report and copy of the survey for Williams' study "Social and cultural factors affecting role-conflict and adjustment among American women: a pilot investigation." Also includes a copy of the Cornell-Aro study social data questionnaire and a computer dataset printout of Yoruba respondents.
File contains 3 articles written by Alexander H. Leighton: "Mental health and the problem of cooperation between races and between nations," "Psychiatry and the health of the public," and "Reflections of a tender-minded radical."
Item consists of the fourth draft of an Atlantic Child Guidance Centre position paper, dated August 31, 1972, prepared by the Atlantic Child Guidance Centre Policy Committtee (Dr. Alexander Murchison, Dr. G. Gordon, Norris Turner, Paul Norton, Dr. S. Bijoor, and Everett Harris). The item is addressed to "all Atlantic Child Guidance Centre staff for comment" before final submission, and has the goal of ensuring that "adolescents [...] not be forgotten either in terms of bureaucratic strucutre or in terms of submergence in adult designed and orientated programs," and that they "require advocates" to ensure that any public health legislation does not overlook the needs of those who are "underage [... in a] largely adult orientated society."
Item consists of an early draft of a "Group home development proposal" compiled by the Alexander Murchison (and others) for the Group Home Advisory Committee, Children's Aid Society of Halifax, dated March 5, 1973. The committee consisted of Dr. Murchison (chairman), Ron Smith, Pat Corkery, T. Daley, Mrs. Cleveland, and Father O'Neil. The purpose of the document is "to recommend proposals relative to the development of group homes by the Children's Aid Society of Halifax". Item also contains handwritten inked marginal notes and corrections.
Item is a draft brief compiled by Alexander Murchison and others in 1973 or 1974, regarding the opening of a Child Guidance Centre. Item reviews reports and speeches (Clyde Marshall's 1969 working paper, a 1970 address by the Honourable R.A. Donahoe to the Conference of Mental Health Centre Boards, the Hastings Report, and the Government of Ontario's White Paper), as a means of determining that the functioning of the Centre would be "impaired" if the Centre was to be located in the Abbie Lane Psychiatric Hospital. The item addresses concerns with the proposal arising from the schism between prevention (which the Centre would encourage) versus treatment (which the hospital engages in), as well as the stigma associated with the hospital, affecting negatively potential work with at-risk youth and their families.
Item is a draft funding proposal compiled by Alexander Murchison and others, submitted to the Atlantic Regional Office, Non-Medical Use of Drugs Directorate, Health Protection Branch, Department of National Health & Welfare, in February 1973, encouraging the funding and development of an adolescent health care program in Nova Scotia. The item addresses what was achieved from a similar proposal in 1972, and outline aims "to animate interested health care workers [in the province] to initiate changes within their own community and profession." The item contains a three-page budget appendix.
Item is an early draft proposal written by Alexander Murchison and others ca. 1973 regarding funding for a grant to improve the delivery of health services to children and youth in Nova Scotia. The proposal aims to implement several programs in Halifax County to assist the province's youth in moving "toward optimum health" by implementing the following programs: Life Development program (emphasizing proper nutrition, emotional and physical development); Day Care and Pre-School program; Teacher Training program; Community Health Nurse program; Environmental Control program (environmental effects on human growth and development); and General Training program (for professionals involved with children and adolescent care).
Item is a report written by Alexander Murchison, dated January 9, 1975, and presented to the Dartmouth Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, regarding improving group home facilities not only for adolescents and older individuals in Nova Scotia.
File includes copies of "A Survey of General Physicians : Manual for Participating General Practitioners" and "Appendix A : Nomenclature and Classification in the Stirling County Study."
File contains a letter and research proposal for "Control and prevention of psychiatric disorders in community populations" by Alexander Leighton, and a report by D. Shapiro.
File contains a research manual for field work for the Stirling County Study. The manual indicates that researchers could keep one copy of their field notes and reports for their personal or university's files and that all others remained the property of Cornell University.
Item is a handwritten report with a preface attributing a large portion of the material "from a preliminary report on psychological testing prepared by Dr. Frank Freeman of Cornell University."
File contains an interim progress report for the Cornell-Aro Mental Health Research Project with reference to the National Institute of Health grant M-4506.
