ABSTRACT
The mission of the Ad Hoc Planning Group on the Role of the American Psychological Association in Mental Health Programs and Research was to aid the Board of Directors in its task of formulating policies. "Mental health" means many things; communication and thinking are impeded when different persons, or the same persons at different times, apply different meanings to the term. While all thoughtful psychologists agree that many of the meanings implied by the words "mental health" are of great importance, few of them like the term. In spite of the emphases on the newer meanings of mental health, remedial efforts with identified deviates consume more professional services, including those of psychologists, than the other aspects combined. Mental health, logically, is an aspect of public health, although it has been publicized without evident relationship to the general public health movement. Mental health is not simple, and neither are the roles that psychologists play in it.
