WELCOME TO THE NEW WFMH CENTER FOR FAMILY AND CONSUMER ADVOCACY AND SUPPORT
It is with much pleasure that I welcome you to the newest component of the World Federation for Mental Health’s program activities – the WFMH Center for Family and Consumer Advocacy and Support (CFCAS) — and to the Center’s dedicated section on the WFMH website.
The Center is an outgrowth of almost two years of discussion and collaboration between WFMH and the World Fellowship for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (WFSAD), which has resulted in a merger of WFSAD’s organization and program structure into WFMH.
Within the global mental health movement, the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) works to promote the advancement of mental health awareness, prevention of mental disorders, advocacy and best-practice, recovery-focused interventions. Over the past 25 years, the World Fellowship for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (WFSAD) has focused on supporting and empowering families of people with serious mental illness through the development of family self-help, education and advocacy. WFSAD and WFMH have worked closely over the past few years, building on shared messages and common goals, to help strengthen the movement and bring together all of the key stakeholders.
During 2008 the Board of Directors of WFSAD approached the World Federation for Mental Health to explore the potential of merging its organization, programs, and membership into WFMH. The WFSAD Board believed that the global mental health advocacy movement had reached a strategically important point in its development where increased collaboration across organizations, countries and constituents is required to move to the next level. Following discussions between WFSAD and WFMH, the governing bodies of both organizations approved a Merger Resolution in July 2008 to guide the merger process. The implementation of that process has been underway since the autumn of 2008, despite some disruption due to the global economic crisis which has had a major impact on international non-governmental organizations over the past year. As we end 2009, most of the details of the merger process have been completed, and it is with much gratitude to WFSAD that we are launching the new WFMH Center for Family and Consumer Advocacy and Support on January 1, 2010.
THE WFMH CENTER FOR FAMILY AND CONSUMER ADVOCACY AND SUPPORT (CFCAS)
The WFMH Center for Family and Consumer Advocacy and Support (CFCAS) will serve as the focal point for WFMH’s ongoing work on family and consumer/service user concerns. The establishment of the WFMH Center for Family and Consumer Advocacy and Support (CFCAS) will provide the framework for continued implementation of several of the excellent programs and projects that have been developed by the World Fellowship for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (WFSAD), including:
- Reason to Hope Family Training
- Families as Partners in Mental Health Care Guidebook
- Network-building among national and local Schizophrenia Fellowships and related organizations in countries around the world.
While the initial phase of the Center’s implementation will focus on the integration of WFSAD and its programs into the program structure of WFMH, the Center’s focus will ultimately be expanded to include a major emphasis on consumer/service user issues, awareness, support, and recovery.
Projected activities and program elements of the Center will serve to support WFMH’s emerging Africa Initiative addressing the mental health consequences of HIV/AIDS – in particular the Initiative’s objectives to promote increased mental health support services for family-member caregivers of people living with HIV/AIDS and to encourage the development of Peer Support and Recovery programs for people living with major mental disorders, and their families, in countries where no such programs exist.
The CFCAS will also complement the objectives and priorities of the WFMH Center for Transcultural Mental Health (CTMH). That Center addresses issues related to reducing the disparities in access to mental health treatment and support services faced by ethnic minorities, immigrants, and refugees. It also aims to promote cultural sensitivity and competence within mental health service systems and their workforces.
One of the early tasks of the Center’s leadership will be the establishment of a CFCAS International Advisory Committee that will have representation from recognized leaders in the international mental health service consumers/users movements and family/carer groups. The Advisory Committee will provide ongoing input into the programs and work of the Center, and will function in an advisory capacity to the WFMH Board of Directors on a range of issues relating the families and caregivers and to people living with mental illnesses.
During the process of finalizing the merger, WFMH and WFSAD have been working on a joint project to develop a suicide prevention program to provide information for family carers of people living with mental illnesses. Mental Illness and Suicide: A Family Guide to Facing and Reducing the Risks will provide a detailed, easy to understand, manual together with a template training workshop for families that can be delivered by family support organizations, mental health associations, and mental health and primary healthcare professionals in communities around the world.
The World Federation for Mental Health is extremely grateful to the volunteer leadership of the World Fellowship for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders for this opportunity to bring the important work and constituencies of the two organizations together. In a time of major economic difficulties and geopolitical conditions that challenge the capacity of international non-governmental organizations to generate adequate resources, the concept of two long-standing, highly respected organizations combining their resources and constituencies around a shared vision and mission is indeed a momentous opportunity for strengthening the global mental health advocacy movement.
This is the encouraging prospect that the WFMH Center for Family and Consumer Advocacy and Support will offer as we move into 2010.
Tony Fowke, AM
President
World Federation for Mental Health