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What we are concerned about and why this Resolution was passed is the fact that this confusion in terms, this inclusion of mental retardation in mental health at one time, and excluding it the next moment, has lead -sic-, I repeat, demonstrably in dollars and cents to a severe discrimination against the mentally retarded. It is for that reason that we recently sent out several memoranda to our membership about this relationship between the field of mental retardation and the field of mental illness, both of them being part of what you might call mental disorder, both of them related to mental health but each having its own frame of reference.

Lest you feel that I see things under the bed, let me read from a letter that comes from the National Institute of Mental Health and was directed to a State official in one of our Western States who specifically had inquired about the confusion between mental illness and mental retardation in conjunction with the Report of the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health. As you may know, this monumental five-year report which now forms the basis for a good bit of governmental activity completely ignores mental retardation, and this NIMH letter explains this omission as follows: "Perhaps the basic reason was that the Joint Commission (on Mental Illness and Health) thought that the core problem of mental health is the public care of persons with major mental illness."

Again we face the meanings of words! The dictionary says that "core" means basic to all, encompassing the essence, thus this letter clearly states that mental retardation is not of the essence in the field of mental health. We naturally disagree. Of course, we are not encouraging you to abolish the term mental health or to abolish mental health programs. All we urge upon you is that you be sure that as your State develops new legislative programs and appropriations such as community mental health services, this one simple thing be observed as our Board so very clearly stated, namely: that separate, adequate and appropriate emphasis be given to the problem of mental retardation alongside of, but not subsidiary to the problem of mental illness.

I apologize to you for presenting such a thoroughly uninspiring message. Yet, I cannot think of one more urgent at this particular time with the Federal Government about ready to implement the so vitally important recommendations of the President's Panel on Mental Retardation.