An ounce of prevention

摘要

On Feb 5, 1963, President John F Kennedy made a provocative speech to the US Congress. His topic? Mental illness. According to Kennedy, mental health problems aff ected more people, required longer treatment, drained more fi nancial resources from both individuals and the state, and caused more suff ering than other health conditions in the USA. The situation, he emphasised, could not persist. Claiming that recent public health advances had largely controlled infectious diseases, Kennedy argued that a similar “bold new approach” was required to “attack” mental health problems. He urged that society needed to “seek out the causes of mental illness and of mental retardation and eradicate them. Here, more than in any other area, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure’.” What were the causes that Kennedy wished to eradicate? Targeted above all were “harsh environmental conditions”.