The Use of Teacher Ratings in a Mental Health Study: A Method for Measuring the Effectiveness of a Therapeutic Nursery Program

THE MAGNITUDE of the public health problem posed by mental illness has led to an increasing emphasis on programs of prevention. The prevailing belief that the origins of mental disorder are, in part or in whole, to be found in disturbances in early childhood has as its corollary the hypothesis that effective treatment at this age might serve to lower the rate of psychiatric illness in later life.' Whether or not this thesis of early origin is completely supportable with present evidence, it has been a motivating force in a number of cities for the establishment of therapeutic nursery programs, of which the Children's Guild of Baltimore is one recent example. The multiplication of such programs, their potential value and, we must add, their cost, all combine to suggest the importance of attempts to measure their effectiveness. In a service setting, this is more easily said than done; problems of method and conflicts in philosophy between research workers and clinicians tend to abort enthusiasm for such unLandowne, M.S.W.; Daniel M. Wilner, Ph.D.