HISTORICAL NOTE: WFMH WORLD CONGRESSES

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HISTORICAL NOTE: WFMH WORLD CONGRESSES

The current system of biennial world congresses of WFMH was mandated at the 1979 Board meeting at the time of the congress in Salzburg, Austria. It was passed by a majority vote despite the vigorous opposition of some older members of the Board who preferred a revival of the previous system of annual meetings which would require less money and effort.

Including the 1977 congress in Vancouver, BC as well as the most recent in 2001, marking a return to Vancouver, there have been 13 biennial world congresses under WFMH auspices. Their locations were as follows:

1977, Vancouver, Canada

1979, Salzburg, Austria

1981, Manila, Republic of the Philippines

1983, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

1985, Brighton, England, U.K.

1987, Cairo, Egypt

1989, Auckland, New Zealand

1991, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

1993, Tokyo, Japan

1995, Dublin, Ireland

1997, Lahti, Finland

1999, Santiago, Chile

2001, Vancouver, Canada

In addition to these biennial gatherings there have been six others, with slight variations in name (ie. “International” rather than “World,” and “Hygiene” rather than “Health”), under WFMH auspices. Their locations follow:

1948, London, England, U.K. (the founding meeting of WFMH)

1951, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

1954, Toronto, Canada

1961, Paris, France

1968, London, England, U.K.

1973, Sydney, Australia (25th Anniversary Congress)

These 19 congresses under WFMH auspices were preceded by two others prior to the Federation’s founding. They were the “First International Congress on Mental Hygiene” in Washington, D.C. in 1930, and a second such congress in Paris in 1937. Both were involved with the predecessor of WFMH, the International Committee on Mental Hygiene (ICMH).

Before 1977, in the years between congresses, annual meetings were held. The first such meeting had been held immediately following the 1948 congress. Most meetings included some administrative work, but were designed primarily as study groups addressing substantive issues of mental health significance, e.g. the mental health of displaced persons, mental health in the schools, population and mental health, etc. Annual meetings were held regularly through 1963 with occasional ones into the early 1970s. Eventually these meetings were replaced by annual Board meetings devoted to administrative issues.

With this history in mind it would be accurate to say that the 2001 Vancouver congress was the 13th biennial congress of WFMH, the 19th international congress of WFMH, or the 21st international congress of mental health (or “hygiene”). In order to avoid the confusion engendered by the faulty designation of the recent Vancouver meeting as “the 26th” world mental health gathering (apparently some annual meetings were counted in), it would seem desirable for WFMH to adhere to the change in designation made at the time of the 1968 London congress when the practice of numbering such events was abandoned in favor of a designation by year. The forthcoming event in Melbourne, then, should simply be called the 2003 World Congress for Mental Health.

– Eugene B. Brody