(1) The Department of Health and Human Services shall gather information as to the expenditures of charitable institutions in this and other countries and regarding the best and most successful methods of caring for persons with an intellectual disability and persons with a mental disorder.

(2) The Department of Health and Human Services shall encourage scientific investigation of the treatment of mental problems, epilepsy, and all other diseases and causes that contribute to mental disabilities by the medical staffs of the state medical institutions. The department shall provide forms for statistical returns to be made by the institutions. The department shall make an investigation of the conditions, causes, prevention, and cure of epilepsy, intellectual disability, and mental disorders. The department shall give special attention to the methods of care, treatment, education, and improvement of the persons served by the institutions under its control and shall exercise a careful supervision of the methods to the end that, so far as practicable, the best treatment and care known to modern science shall be given to such persons and that the best methods of teaching, improving, and educating such persons shall be used.