Editorial The Church and-Mental Health

Many readers may have been present at the service held for workers in the field of Mental Health at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on March 28th. Those who were not, can read the Bishop of Stepney's address in the Guild of Health's monthly "For Health and

Healing,"

for

May.

The Service itself is significant of another step forward in the collaboration of the church and medicine in healing disease : but the Bishop's address goes further. Progress has been remarkable in the physical field, but with regard to mental illness "the report is very different." We are aware of this, and aware too that collaboration in mental illness is even more necessary and should be even more fruitful than in physical illness: but our tendency is to blame the other side for the failures. It is here the

Bishop is an example. Failure," he states that the

In a paragraph headed church must bear a fair share of the blame : the failure is linked with the division between the church's healing minority and the doctors. In the past derangement was regarded as devil possession and the sufferers were left by the doctors to the church : but the church "could no longer and had no policy other than segregation, cast out the devils and indifference." This is a valiant attempt on the forgetfulness Bishop's part to assess the Church's responsibility?and he says little of the medical profession's faults and failings, so following the parable of the mote and the beam. "The Church's

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Can the medical profession do likewise by considering their weaknesses and what they can learn from the church and other workers in the field of mental health? Can they agree more among themselves? The Bishop has given a lead. own