In 1956 the Hogg Foundation for Mental Hygiene became the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. The name change was a recognition of an evolution in the language used to discuss concepts of mental health and illness. It was also evidence of how the foundation, from its inception, had attended closely to the importance of language in the broader effort to modernize and humanize the ways in which society addressed mental health and illness. 

In fact, for the first few years of its existence, due to limited resources as well as conflict over the terms of Will Hogg's estate, the foundation consisted almost entirely of language – of pamphlets and mail-outs and the lectures given across the state by director Robert Sutherland and his corps of "circuit riders for mental health." 

As the foundation's resources and mission expanded, it was able to complement this consciousness raising work with a broad array of other activities including policy work, funding of direct services, and support for workforce development. But the need to use language and narrative to change people's perceptions of mental health, and particularly of mental illness, has remained intrinsic to the foundation's work to this day.

The publications featured in this section of the website are a small sampling of some of the ways these stories have been told.