Barcelos City Hall
Largo Dom António Barroso 211, 4750-323 Barcelos, Portugal.
The world Federation for Mental Health's aim is to promote the advancement of mental health awareness, prevention of mental disorders, advocacy, and best practice recovery focused interventions worldwide.
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 organisation aims are:
- 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.
The WFMH is a member of the UN's World Health Organisation, and has officers within the WHO Europe section.
Prior to the WFMH being formed, a Canadian psychiatrist, George Brock Chisholm said:
»The world was sick, and the ills from which it was suffering were mainly due to the perversion of man, his inability to live at peace with himself« –
He was the first Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) and suggested that the World Federation of Mental Health (WFMH) be created. He 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 wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" provided early direction for both the WHO and the WFMH.
The Journal of The World Psychiatric Association explains further:
The World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) is an international, multi-professional non-governmental organization (NGO), including citizen volunteers and former patients. It was founded in 1948 in the same era as the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO). For many years, led mainly by psychiatrists focused on social, peace-related and human rights issues, it was the only international mental health NGO consulting with UN agencies. Since the late 1990s, as a global alliance of national mental health associations focused mainly on traditional mental health issues and on prevention and promotion, it has continued its long-time collaboration with WHO. Its policy concerns and those of international professional associations such as the WPA could be mutually advanced through partnerships aimed at achieving common goals.
Virtual Attendance:
Part of the activities will be broadcast live online. The sessions will be held in English, but the most important ones, as well as presentations in Portuguese and Spanish, will include simultaneous interpretation.
Click the image above to register to attend the event.
Source: WFHM / Jamie McGovern
