Mission

The mission of the Department of Mental Health is to advance understanding of the causes and consequences of mental health and mental disorders, in order to improve health in the general population.  The central focus of the mission is the prevention and control of mental disorders and impairments.

The target outcome of mental health and mental disorders is the distinguishing feature of the department.  Mental disorders are disturbances of thinking, feeling, and acting which have a proximate cause in the human brain.  Disturbances of thinking include mental disorders like schizophrenia and dementia, as well as impairments like mental retardation.  Disturbances of feeling include emotional problems like mood and anxiety disorders.  Disturbances of behavior include misuse of alcohol, use of illicit drugs, and violence.  The expression of mental and behavioral problems in humans is diverse, and most disorders  involve problems of varying intensity in all three areas of cognition, emotion, and behavior. Mental disorders typically involve disruption of the social relations of the individual, and are associated with neurological changes.  Mental disorders occur at all ages and in all social groups.

Understanding causes and consequences of mental health and mental disorders from the perspective of public health involves population-based surveys in a developmental framework.  Prevention and control of mental disorders involves design and execution of intervention trials to prevent disorder in individuals who are currently healthy, as well as to minimize future consequences for those with current disorder or a history of disorder. Interventions for promotion of mental health are part of the mission because good mental health protects against onset of a variety of mental disorders, as well as being a valued outcome in itself.

Brief History

The Department of Mental Health is the first and the only department-level unit  in a school of public health. The formal charter in 1961 under Dr. Paul Lemkau developed directly from an unusual pairing at Johns Hopkins in 1907 between Dr. Adolf Meyer, a skilled, pragmatic psychiatrist, and Clifford Beers, who, in his memoirs of his own harsh experiences, crusaded against crude, institutional treatment of mental illness. Together, they made a powerful, visionary pair who elevated the level of public discourse about the etiology and treatment of mental disorders. 

Meyer believed that mental disorders occurred in the context of brain physiology and one’s home and social environment, and that review of the individual’s life story and social environment could provide critical clues as to the treatment and community-based prevention of psychiatric disorders. 

Read on to discover how these two men developed their mission over the ensuing years while physicians, psychologists, and epidemiologists were working together  to develop research methods and educational materials not only for the examination of conditions in the community, such as family, education, employment and economics, but also for conditions inside the body—such as neurological disturbances and genetic influences—that serve as risk factors for mental disorders.

For more information, download: Origins of Mental Hygiene