Eternal vigilance must be exercised somewhere against … lower standards for the treatment and care of mental patients. Constant constructive efforts also must be employed towards progressive plans and policies.
Dr. Sandy was born in Troy, New York, and received his A.B. from Columbia College (1898) and M.D. (1901) from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. He interned at the Newark City Hospital and, in 1905, served as an assistant physician at the Trenton State Hospital. In 1913, he was appointed to the staff of King’s Park State Hospital in New York, where he remained for two years, and then moved to the South Carolina State Hospital in Columbia as Medical Director, remaining for two years.
From 1917–18, he was Assistant Superintendent of the Connecticut State Mental Hospital in Middletown, West Virginia. During WWI, Dr. Sandy served in the U.S. Army, mostly in the Office of the Surgeon General. Following the war, he returned to New York and, for two years, was a psychiatrist to the New York State Commissioner for Mental Defectives. In 1921, he was appointed the first director of the Bureau of Mental Health of the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare, where he served for 19 years.
He was active in psychiatric organizations and was president of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society, which he helped organize. Dr. Sandy served as Secretary-Treasurer (1933–38) of the American Psychiatric Association and President from (1939–40).