History of WFMH

 Historical Note: WFMH World Congress

     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:

       1: 1961, Paris ,France

       2: 1968,London,England,U.K

       3: 1973,Sydney, Australia(25th Anniversary Congress)

       4: 1977, Vancouver, Canada

       5: 1979,Salzburg, Austria

       6: 1981,Manila, Republic of the Philippines

       7: 1983,Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

       8: 1985,Brighton, England, U.K.

       9: 1987,Cairo,Egypt

     10: 1989,Auckland,New Zealand

     11: 1991,Mexico,D.F.Mexico

     12: 1993,Tokyo, Japan

     13: 1995,Dublin, Ireland

     16: 1997, Lathi, Finland

     17: 1999,Santiago,Chile

     18: 2001, Vancouver, Canada

     19: 2003,Melbourne,Australia

     20: 2005,Cairo, Egypt

     21: 2007,Hong Kong

     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).

     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 ”hygine”). In order to avoid the confusion engendered by the faulty designation of the recent Vancouver meeting as “the 26th” world mental health gathering, it would seem desirable for WFMH to adhere to the change in designation 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.