The American Mental Health Foundation (AMHF) is a non-profit organization (NGO): EIN 13-6161164. Its mission statement is: "For a century and in times of social change, a not-for-profit organization advancing the public understanding of mental health by educating through books, articles, website blogs, and workshops."
History
AMHF was chartered in 1924 and incorporated in New York State in 1954 as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, so recognized by the U.S. federal government. Former chairmen include Hon. Harvey J. Ross of the 143rd (1920) New York State Legislature, Austrian writer-in-exile Hermann Broch (whom James Joyce helped aid in the escape from the Nazis following the Anschluss of March 1938) and Richard Weil Jr., one-time head of Macy's Department Store. The chairman from February 18, 2010, to May 1, 2016, was John P. Fowler (publisher of "National Review," then its vice president and a director of National Review Institute to February 2019). Ms. Jacqueline A. Lofaro, formerly an executive with Catholic Charities, assumed chairmanship on March 29, 2017, but as of October 31, 2018, is no longer on the board. Michelle Harrison, M.D., trained as a psychopharmacologist, was elected on June 26, 2018. Dr. Raymond B. Flannery, Jr., FACLP, was elected to the board on March 1, 2022, and in this role continues contributing substantive blogs to the AMHF website.
Former director of research Stefan Sarkozy de Somogyi Schill (known professionally as Stefan de Schill) pioneered in group psychotherapy, as well an advocacy for gay individuals when he took a position favoring Lyndon Baines Johnson aide Walter Jenkins, whose alleged homosexuality (the term used then) became a political issue.
An early affiliate and clinical supervisor was Otto Kauders.[1] Nineteen-forty-eight is when de Schill was appointed director of research, following a recommendation by AMHF chairman at the time—Broch (then with Princeton University) as well as Kauders—remaining so until his death on February 9, 2005.[2] The position of executive director was filled by Evander Lomke shortly after. In the 1960s, de Schill defended LBJ aide Walter Jenkins during a Washington scandal.[3] As part of his work in group psychotherapy for AMHF, during the 1970s through 2000, de Schill co-edited (with Serge Lebovici), singly edited, as well as contributed to, several books devoted to these modalities.
On April 10, 2016, AMHF again appeared in The New York Times in a letter from Mr. Lomke rebutting the medical practice of "growth attenuation" among young people with serious disabilities. Also in April 2016, AMHF issued a monograph describing two years of collaborative research with Astor Services for Children & Families regarding early signs of schizophrenia and other psychoses, and palliation/prevention. On March 27, 2017, for AMHF, Lomke placed an op-ed, on coping with the psychological dimensions of fear, anxiety and social stress, and terrorism in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Beginning summer 2014, AMHF embarked on a research project with Pearson Assessment to measure older individuals, in the serious-to-profound range of intellectual disabilities, for behavioral changes. Such a test would be in the mode of the existing Wechsler, Vineland, and Bayley Scales and have wide-ranging applications. AMHF is awaiting further funding (as of 2023) to continue. The findings of the AMHF 2-year study with Astor Services for Children & Families were issued in April 2016 (see below under American Mental Health Foundation Books).
Guiding publications, blogs, and research endeavors is an advisory board with mental-health specialists, including Eric J. Green, Ph.D. (Jungian-play therapy), James Campbell Quick, Ph.D. (stress), Jeanine Lee Skorinko Ph.D., Paul Quinnett, Ph.D. (suicide), and Alexis Tomarken. M.S.W., Ph.D (complicated grief).
On November 1, 2023, the start of its 2023-24 fiscal year,The American Mental Health Foundation celebrated its 100th anniversary,
American Mental Health Foundation Books
AMHF supports the research-based work of PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) researcher and authority Flannery, clinical psychologist formerly with Harvard Medical School and The University of Massachusetts Medical School, by publishing The Violent Person: Professional Risk Management Strategies for Safety and Care The Violent Person received notices in peer-reviewed journals.[4] Flannery's The Assaulted Staff Action Program (ASAP) is a program he developed unconnected to AMHF.
Working with the Erich Fromm estate and its literary executor, Dr. Rainer Funk, four posthumous books by Fromm have been reissued as well as issued for the first time in 2010. Fromm, an original member of the loose association known as the Frankfurt School of social theorists, writes in the neo-Freudian tradition on topics such as free will, the vulnerability of populations to dictators and fascism, the disruptive role of emerging technology on human personality and human nature. There was a special focus on the virtue of hope, which he saw as an antidote to the preceding conditions and portals of enlightenment. This publishing arrangement runs through February 7, 2025.
With Astor Services for Children & Families from 2012 to 2014 (as noted above), AMHF responded to a need noted by Paul Gionfriddo[5] in the screening of several-thousand youth in a county-wide catchment area, to identify approximately 15 at-risk individuals who would receive a palliative-prevention treatment.
Dr. Henry Kellerman's original work includes.The Psychoanalytic Codes: Encryption and Decryption and What Is Your Diagnosis Saying to You? The Nomenclature of Psychology. These are scheduled for 2024 and 2025, respectively.
Dr. William Van Ornum, FAPA, clinical psychologist, former professor at Marist College and Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also on the professional advisory board, referenced above.[6][7] The current president & executive director of AMHF, since February 9, 2005, is Mr. Evander Lomke.[8]
Select scholarly and professional publications by The American Mental Health Foundation
- Flannery, R. B. Jr. (1998, 2012). The Assaulted Staff Program (ASAP).
- Flannery, R. B. Jr. (2016). Violence: Why People Do Bad Things, with Strategies to Reduce that Risk.
- Flannery, R. B. Jr. (2017). Coping with Anxiety in an Age of Terrorism
- Flannery, R. B. Jr. (2022). Preventing Youth Violence Before It Begins
- Gavin, J. H., Quick, J. C., and Gavin, D. J. (2013). Live Your Dreams, Change the World: The Psychology of Personal Fulfillment for Women.
- Kellerman, H. (2012). Personality: How It Forms.
- Kellerman, H. (2016). There's No Handle on My Door: Stories of Mental Patients in Mental Hospitals.
- Kellerman, H. (2018). Psychotherapeutic Traction: Uncovering the Patient's Basic Wish and Power-Theme
- Kellerman, H. (2021). The Origin of Language
- Mary Nichols, Suzanne Button, Katherine Hoople, and Laura Lappan (2016). Early Identification, Palliative Care, and Prevention of Psychotic Disorders in Children and Youth (monograph of AMHF 2-year study).
References
- ↑ Barzilai-Vivaldi, Gemma; Kauders, Otto (1924-11-01). "Unübertragbarkeit alter Impfmalariastämme durch Anophelen". Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten. 103 (4): 744–763. doi:10.1007/BF02174698. S2CID 21606996.
- ↑ "Paid Notice - Deaths DE SCHILL, STEFAN - Paid Death Notice - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. 2005-02-13. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ↑ [ Displaying Abstract ] (2012-06-10). "Jenkins Defended By Mental Group - Article - Nytimes.Com". Select.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ↑ ""the Violent Person" | New England Psychologist". Nepsy.com. 2010-11-01. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ↑ Gionfriddo, Paul (2012-10-16). "Health, Science & Environment". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2013-11-29.
- ↑ "Faculty for the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences: Marist College". Marist.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-01-14. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ↑ Published: September 07, 1997 (1997-09-07). "William Van Ornum - New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ↑ The New York Public Library (2009-11-10). "CD Collins, Elizabeth J. Coleman, Evander Lomke | The New York Public Library". Nypl.org. Retrieved 2013-03-02.