Goal One
Public Education
To heighten public awareness about the importance of mental health, and to gain understanding and improve attitudes about mental disorders.
World Mental Health Day
In 2001 the Federation continued its two-year international public education campaign on “Mental Health and Work,” while beginning preparations for a new campaign in 2002 on the effects of trauma and violence on children and adolescents. This program is one of WFMH’s major activities, with outreach to many countries. Its goal is to encourage national and local organizers, ranging from government departments to grassroots activists, to plan public education programs on selected themes in mental health.
For some of the largest national campaigns preparations are year-round, with the focus shifting to a new topic almost as soon as the current year’s events have taken place. Many campaigns are not confined to one day, and cover a week of events or are spread out over a longer period with World Mental Health Day (10 October) as a central point.
The “Mental Health and Work” campaign was developed over two years to accommodate an exceptionally complex subject which affects the everyday life of many individuals and families. The subject attracted an unusual degree of interest. The campaign was launched at the headquarters of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva on 10 October 2000 with a joint ILO-WHO-WFMH symposium, which followed an international conference on the theme. Local organizers arranged many events around the world that month to examine issues connected with the workplace. These activities recognized that the ways in which work is organized can contribute to varying degrees of stress or to well-being, and also that access to work is a major issue for many people who have experienced mental disorders.
Patt Franciosi
Chair of World Mental Health Day
The Federation’s Secretariat prepared a second planning kit with new material in 2001 to encourage a fresh round of public awareness activities. Deborah Maguire directed the writing team, with Board member Patt Franciosi serving as chairperson for the campaign. Many local organizers found the two-year span was helpful in deepening their programs and addressed diverse topics related to the World Mental Health Day theme throughout the year. In Egypt, for example, WFMH’s outgoing President Ahmed El Azayem led an effort to attract attention to the problems of working children during 2001. In Hong Kong, Deborah Wan of the New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association chaired an expanded campaign involving many other organizations. In Uruguay, Board member Paulo Alterwain arranged a continuing program on the problems faced by those working in health, education and the law during a period of great economic difficulty.
Paulo Alterwain & Eugene Brody
Spoke at a World Mental Health Day program at the Pan American Health Organization
Dr. Alterwain was invited to give an address on South American issues at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington, D.C., on 10 October 2001 for World Mental Health Day. Former WFMH Secretary General Eugene B. Brody also spoke about the long history of the Federation’s connections with PAHO, including some surprisingly early instances of workplace concerns in the Caribbean. The core of this program, however, was a speech by PAHO’s director George Alleyne about the effect on his international staff of the September 11 events. He realized that his organization had urgent workplace concerns of its own to examine in line with the theme for the Day, and spoke also about the impact of September 11 on the families of his staff, particularly children.