In England during the 1930s and 1940s, Dax worked with John Rawlings Rees, Francis Reitmann and other biological psychiatrists who advocated the use of somatic (physical) treatments for patients with mental problems.

[7] He began a collection of artworks produced by psychiatric patients, taking about 20 objects from Netherne when he went to Melbourne, including paintings from the research art studio and tapestries made in occupational therapy.

[9] Adamson carried on the studio for 35 years, and is one of the pioneers of Art Therapy in Britain,[10] and founded the Adamson Collection, now comprising approximately 6000 paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics created at Netherne, and currently almost all re-located to the Wellcome Library in anticipation of a securer future in several international institutions.

[15] These included the moving of psychiatric treatment from asylums to community settings[16] and the introduction of art programs for patients.

In his introduction to this book the Federation's chairman, John Rawlings Rees, praised Dax's Mental Hygiene Authority as 'a major training ground in psychiatry and mental health work for all the English-speaking populations of the South-western Pacific region'.

However, he continued to provide diagnoses and recommendations for Tasmanian patients including in 1984 Martin Bryant,[25] who went on to commit the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.

Dax was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Medicine honoris causa at the university on 15 December 1984, and remained a Senior Fellow in Psychiatry at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.