The State Charities Aid Association subseries includes documents related to the activities of the SCAA in the field of mental health. It includes legal documents, reports, minutes, memos, letters, and pamphlets generated by various committees of the SCAA, reprints of articles by people belonging to or associated with the SCAA, and some state government documents and other external documents related to the work of the SCAA. Also included are reports of the Committee on Legislation, which was a special committee on legislation for the insane (1891-1895) and a letter to the mayor of New York City advocating bringing New York County into the state mental health system. The Subcommittee on After Care worked to improve the care offered to mental patients after discharge from mental institutions. Included are the subcommittee's by-laws, minutes, and one annual report. The Committee on Mental Hygiene was the principal committee of SCAA dealing with mental health issues. The records include reports of the assistant secretary, mission statement (labeled as "objects") minutes, proposal for the study of the prevalence of mental disease in New York State, training programs, memos, reports, and an excerpt from a history of mental health policies in New York. The Visiting Committees were members of the SCAA who were empowered by New York State to inspect mental institutions on behalf of the state government and report to the state's Department of Mental Hygiene on the conditions in the institutions and the quality and effectiveness of the care being offered to the mentally ill.
The correspondence is composed mainly of letters in 1884 to Gertrude (Mrs. William) Rice, officer and member of the Board of Trustees of the SCAA, from Miss. Abby Howland Woolsey, librarian and member of the board of managers of the SCAA and the member who appears to have supervised (and perhaps paid for) the printing of and served as cataloger of SCAA publications, as well as compiling a handbook of hospital procedures printed in 1883. The letters contain some information about the role of SCAA in overseeing state mental health as perceived by Woolsey, her view of obstacles to reform efforts, her brief comparison of U.S. and British mental health systems, and references to research and legislative efforts by Dr. Stephen Smith, on which Woolsey was asked to assist. There are also two letters from Dr. C. R. Agnew, one inviting Mrs. Rice to attend a meeting of the New York Society of Medicine on eye diseases, and another expressing views on a mental health reform bill before the New York state legislature in 1880.
The advocacy materials are letters and reports related to the efforts of SCAA to influence legislation and appointments regarding mental health matters. Includes comments on the Fassett-Batcheller Bill (1889) dealing with treatment of the insane in New York State, letters from SCAA members to Governor Theodore Roosevelt and others regarding the pros and cons of the proposed reappointment of Goodwin Brown to a second term as Commissioner of Lunacy of New York in 1899-1900, and documents related to the commission chaired by Charles H. Strong in 1916 regarding management of the State Board of Charities.
The SCAA publications include pamphlets, reports, reprints, and other published documents regarding the work of the SCAA and the treatment of the mentally ill, especially in New York State. Authors include Homer Folks, secretary and executive director of the SCAA from ca. 1890-ca. 1930, and a nationally known authority on mental health issues. Most of the records deal with mental health policy in New York State in the early 20th century. The external publications were published by organizations other than the SCAA and retained by the SCAA for its library or files, including a report of the 1944 Temporary Commission on State Hospital Problems and Insulin Therapy.