New York State War Council Hospital Staff Draft Status Classification and Recruit Screening Files

Arranged by broad topic; therein, hospital staff files are alphabetical by location of hospital.

In addition to its normal duties of promoting mental health in the State of New York, the Department of Mental Hygiene assisted the State with various wartime mental health-related tasks during World War II; primarily, it conducted psychological screening of recruits for the Selective Service. As with several other state agencies, the department's war work was conducted in conjunction with and under the auspices of the War Council, which coordinated all of New York's home front activities.

The Department of Mental Hygiene provided over 40% of the total psychiatric personnel at the military's induction stations who conducted brief questioning sessions with each recruit to determine if he was a possible psychological liability. From this session, a further background check would be completed on recruits suspected of having psychological problems, including consulting with other state agencies to ascertain if a recruit had ever been hospitalized for a previous mental condition. During the war over 450,000 men were examined, and 3,200 identified as probable liabilities.

Besides screening recruits, the department also transferred three institutions with a total of over 5,000 beds to the Army for use as general facilities. The department also undertook to educate the public to meet the strain of the war by providing lectures and radio talks to air-raid warden and defense groups. It also produced several well-received pamphlets on citizen morale.

This series contains correspondence and memoranda between staff relating to the department's efforts to prevent its hospital personnel from being drafted by classifying them as essential to operations.

Also found are records detailing the department's work screening recruits for the Selective Service, which was part of its task in promoting mental health. These records discuss policy considerations such as confidentiality and screening criteria including serious delinquency, perverted sexuality, and a family history of serious mental conditions. The inability of certain institutions to safeguard confidential information is also frankly discussed.

Folder list is available at the repository.

This series was originally accessioned as box 254 of old collection #77, accession -71.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.