Therapist Unlimited Blog

World Federation for Mental Health WFMH is an international membership organization founded in 1948 to advance, among all peoples and nations, the prevention of mental and emotional disorders, the proper treatment and care of those with such disorders, and the promotion of mental health.
The Federation, through its members and contacts in more than 100 countries on six continents, has responded to international mental health crises through its role as the only worldwide grassroots advocacy and public education organization in the mental health field.
Its organizational and individual membership includes mental health workers of all disciplines, consumers of mental health services, family members, and concerned citizens.
The organization’s broad and diverse membership makes possible collaboration among governments and non-governmental organizations to advance the cause of mental health services, research, and policy advocacy worldwide.
 

A brief History

It was the first Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) who suggested that the World Federation of Mental Health (WFMH) be created.
George Brock Chisholm, a Canadian psychiatrist, envisaged the WFMH as an international, nongovernmental body to provide a link to ‘grassroots’ mental health organizations and United Nations agencies.
A radical thinker, Chisholm’s view that “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” provided early direction for both the WHO and the WFMH.
Chisholm’s close friend, John Rawlings Rees, a British military psychiatrist and a founder of the renowned Tavistock Clinic, accepted the challenge.
Resigning from the clinic to organize the 3rd International Congress of Mental Hygiene, in 1946, Rees travelled to New York to meet with the congress parent sponsors, the International Committee for Mental Hygiene (ICMH).
The original purpose of the ICMH was mental hospital reform. Clifford Beers, a former psychiatric patient, who had suffered dehumanizing treatment and abuse within mental institutions, founded the National Committee for Mental Hygiene in 1910 and the ICMH in 1919.
In the aftermath of WWII, the new ICMH board recognized the need for advocacy in mental health, beyond that of raising standards of care for the mentally ill.
In 1947, the ICMH agreed to change their name to the WFMH and accept as a new purpose “to promote among all peoples and nations the highest possible level of mental health in its broadest biological, medical, educational, and social aspects".
The lead architects of this vision were Rees and Chisholm, together with eminent psychiatrists George Stevenson, Clarence Hincks, Arthur Ruggles and Harry Stack Sullivan, and noted anthropologist Margaret Mead.
In preparation for the congress and to reach out to the societies who would later become WFMH members, Rees hosted a meeting of 26 academics representing a wide range of disciplines and nationalities.
Dr. Margaret Mead described the meeting thusly: “Never before has so informal, so simple and so fruitful an organizational scheme been tried with individuals working to communicate with the others instead of covering themselves for the folks back home”.
These discussions were later published as “Mental Health and World Citizenship’ and provided the core principles of the WFMH.
The Resolution to found WFMH began with a meeting in the British Ministry of Health building during the London Congress on the night of 18 August and completed on the night of 19 August 1948.
 Dr. Jack Rees announced the resolution at a plenary session of the Congress the following day and was ratified by the official Congress delegates on 21 August.
The Federation began with members, ‘not of individuals or countries, but of societies’ from 46 countries. Today, with members and contacts in over 150 countries, the founding principles of the WFMH still hold true and are reflected in current WFHM activities including World Mental Health Day, the Biannual World Congresses, WFMH Collaborating Centers and ongoing initiatives to improve awareness and remove prejudice about mental disorders.
 

Vision, Mission, Goals, Values and Principles

Vision

    The World Federation for Mental Health envisions a world in which mental health is a priority for all people. Public policies and programs reflect the crucial importance of mental health in the lives of individuals.

Mission

    The mission of the World Federation for Mental Health is to promote the advancement of mental health awareness, prevention of mental disorders, advocacy, and best practice recovery focused interventions worldwide.

Goals

    To heighten public awareness about the importance of mental health, and to gain understanding and improve attitudes about mental disorders.

    To promote mental health and prevent mental disorders.

    To improve the care, treatment and recovery of people with mental disorders.

Values

The World Federation for Mental Health believes that lived values are key determinants of mental health, along with the contributions of biological, psychological, and social influences and evidence-based treatments.

The core value driving the World Federation for Mental Health is the crucial role of mental health in the fulfilment of individual lives and society at large.

Values to which the World Federation for Mental Health is committed include the following statements taken as a whole:

    * Organizational representation, transparency and accountability
    * Proactive interventions, such as advocacy and education, to promote human rights, self-development and self-management
    * Respect for cultural diversity
    * Mental health promotion and prevention of mental disorders compliment treatment and recovery
    * Inclusive, user and family centered, recovery-oriented mental health treatment and rehabilitation services
    * Compassion and selflessness in all human endeavours
    * Balancing self-sufficiency and inter-dependence as a principle of personal mental health
    * Responsiveness to change as a principle of effective mental health treatment
      (Adopted by the WFMH Board of Directors, 22 August 2007)

Principles

The following principles will guide the future initiatives, programs and activities of WFMH:

    * Adults and children in all communities shall be made aware of the importance of mental health, and of the recognition and response to treatment of mental illness and disability.
    * Users/consumers and families/carers will participate in all the health and social service departments and committees of member countries.
    * Local services for mental illness and disability shall be given equal consideration for resource allocation to those of physical illness in every country.
    * Mental illness and disability shall be equally represented with physical illness in the proceedings and resolutions of the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health Organization, and through them of governments.
    * Human rights abuse, malpractice or discrimination, or bad living or working conditions for users/consumers and those who care for them, including families/carers, professional and voluntary workers, shall be widely reported and governments held accountable.
    * There will be mental health associations in all countries to advocate for improvements in mental health, better provision of services for those with mental illness and disability, and to provide voluntary services.
    * There will be adequate and affordable access to appropriate mental health treatment and recovery services for all those who need them.
    * There will be an efficient means of communicating and disseminating policy, educational, technological and scientific information on mental health from those who have it to those who do not.
    * There will be an effective program for encouraging advocacy and research in the prevention of mental illness and disability and in the promotion of mental health.
    * There will be no race, age, gender, religious or cultural discrimination in the provision of mental health services.

To know more about the group just visit their official website at http://www.wfmh.org/.