Annual Report of the American Mental Health Foundation


by on

American Mental Health Foundation
Annual Report November 1, 2011, to October 31, 2012

This is the second Annual Report on The American Mental Health Foundation (AMHF), a research organization founded in 1924, incorporated in New York State December 31, 1954. (Click here for the first annual report, November 2011.)

Vision Statement: on the homepage of the Web site as well as on all forms of outreach to the public: Building a More Compassionate Society.

Mission: The Mission Statement since 1924 is unchanged—”The object of this Association is to promote, advance, promulgate, perform or carry out, enter into, cultivate, establish and organize scientific research and studies in the field of mental health, psychology, psychoanalysis and related domains; and to organize work groups and seminars for staff members to engage in other educational work.”

To this, in 2012 is added: Given the dearth of analysis in the area of predictive psychiatric behavior among youth, The American Mental Health Foundation has established as its principle research and programming goal over the next three years the support of important and necessary studies in the area of early detection of schizophrenia and other later-life psychoses, publishing these findings (in 2015) under the imprint of American Mental Health Foundation Books.

Programs: AMHF has three distinct programs.

(1) Research. In August, the directors approved funding for a two-year control study under the direction of Dr. Suzanne Button of Astor Services for Children & Families. Described immediately above, under “Mission,” this is a scientific study of individuals with documented behavioral issues, between the ages of eight and fourteen, to identify factors and causes that might develop into later-life forms of schizophrenia or other psychoses. As noted, this study will be published by AMHF Books in 2015. AMHF is expanding its research in this and other areas, with intended emphasis as well on the special emotional needs of individuals with developmental disabilities and elders.

(2) Publishing. In September, AMHF Books published Dr. Henry Kellerman, Personality: How It Forms, and procured publishing rights to six titles in the area of PTSD by Dr. Raymond B. Flannery Jr. These titles, all standard texts, now appear for the first time in e-book format. On May 28, 2013, Live Your Dreams, Change the World: The Psychology of Personal Fulfillment for Women in the Workplace by Drs. Joanne Gavin, James Quick, and David Gavin will be published in traditional and e-book formats. We are exploring a reissue of the 30,000-copy seller, by Director of Research, Dr. William Van Ornum, Crisis Counseling with Children and Adolescents and other important texts.

(3) Seminars. As part of our mission statement, on March 31, 2012, AMHF offered a one-day seminar entitled “The Healthy Organization.” The rubric, building on The Healthy Organization, is called “The Stefan de Schill Memorial Series.” The series, inaugurated in 2011 with “Small Family Business, Big Family Stress,” continues at the Wallace Center of the FDR Presidential Library, Hyde Park, with “Small Family Business II: Leadership,” on April 6, 2013. The content of these seminars are planned for publication, as monographs, by AMHF Books.

Long-range Future; or, Why Contribute to this Charitable Organization

One of the first nonprofit organizations of its kind in the world, AMHF is committed to growing through its mission and research in a way that will benefit individuals and society as a whole, particularly focusing, in the near future, on the special and specific emotional needs and issues confronted, on a daily basis, by individuals with special needs and elders. These populations have traditionally been underserved. Further, AMHF acknowledges the international lifework of its long-time Director of Research, Dr. Stefan de Schill.


Filed under: