TY - JOUR
T1 - V. A. Kral, the Montreal Hebrew Old People's Home, and benign senescent forgetfulness
AU - Heinik, Jeremia
N1 - Funding Information:
15. The Jewish Mental Health services in Montreal, an FJCS agency, had a short-lived history as a independent service. Inaugurated on September 1954, it closed on January 1957 and was assimiliated into the psychiatric service at the Jewish General Hospital. Its team included a psychiatrist (Dr Caplan, also the chief of the service), a psychologist and a psychiatric social worker. Its main activity was to provide consultation to the various welfare and recreational agencies, and to the Home. The service was funded by a grant donated by the Mona Bronfman Shechman Foundation. An effort was made to obtain a Federal grant as well. The correspondence on that topic shows that Professor Owen Cameron –Chairman of Psychiatry at McGill, a dominant figure of North American psychiatry at that time and Kral's superior at the Allan Memorial Institute (Shorter, 2005) –was serving as the government professional co-ordinator. In several letters to FJCS administration, he was in favour of such a project even though more statistical data and service information were required. The correspondence also mentioned that Kral served as a consultant to the Home. The grant processing procedure was slow. The grant refusal letter was received shortly after the transfer of the Jewish Mental Health Services to the Jewish General Hospital was accomplished.
PY - 2006/9
Y1 - 2006/9
N2 - The term Benign Senescent Forgetfulness, introduced in 1958 by V. A. Kral, constitutes the origin of the concept of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a widely studied but controversial entity. The ambiguities surrounding MCI warrant a re-assessment of its historical origin. Any attempt at an in-depth investigation of Kral's works on that subject should begin with a description of the patient population and professional arena in the Montreal Hebrew Old People's and Sheltering Home, where Kral was a consultant. Based on archival and published sources, I describe the Home's facilities, population, staff and programmes/services, followed by an overview of the dynamic factors inducing a re-examination of its mode of operation in the mid-1950s when Kral joined the Home's professional staff as a consultant.
AB - The term Benign Senescent Forgetfulness, introduced in 1958 by V. A. Kral, constitutes the origin of the concept of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a widely studied but controversial entity. The ambiguities surrounding MCI warrant a re-assessment of its historical origin. Any attempt at an in-depth investigation of Kral's works on that subject should begin with a description of the patient population and professional arena in the Montreal Hebrew Old People's and Sheltering Home, where Kral was a consultant. Based on archival and published sources, I describe the Home's facilities, population, staff and programmes/services, followed by an overview of the dynamic factors inducing a re-examination of its mode of operation in the mid-1950s when Kral joined the Home's professional staff as a consultant.
KW - Benign Senescent Forgetfulness
KW - Canada
KW - Mild Cognitive Impairment
KW - Montreal Hebrew Old People's and Sheltering Home
KW - V. A. Kral
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33747625429&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0957154X06061600
DO - 10.1177/0957154X06061600
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AN - SCOPUS:33747625429
SN - 0957-154X
VL - 17
SP - 313
EP - 332
JO - History of Psychiatry
JF - History of Psychiatry
IS - 3
ER -
