About the American Mental Health Foundation

The American Mental Health Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. It celebrates more than a century of creating a more sympathetic society.

Since October 1924 (the October 27, 1924, issue of Time magazine acclaimed Sigmund Freud on its cover that very month: Time itself was started in 1923 by philanthropist Henry R. Luce and Briton Hadden [at first, not long before, named “Fact” magazine]), The American Mental Health Foundation (AMHF) has endeavored to advocate for, and advance, mental health and well-being through all of society. From the beginning, these organizational ideals were inspired by international reformers in the social-hygiene/moral-hygiene movement.

The work of AMHF continues in dedication to the welfare of people suffering from emotional problems and mental illness, with a particular concern for young people, individuals with developmental disabilities (IDD), and elders.

AMHF historically advocates improved quality of treatment and development of more effective methods of research. For many years, the foundation made group psychotherapy available to lower-income individuals. This modality also had been foremost to its studies. Today, AMHF organizes educational seminars and webinars for CEU with APT, NASW, as well as NBCC, and publishes books for the profession and general readers. Some of these titles are available free on this website, in several languages. Purchase of any AMHF paperback or hardcover supports the mission. Its blogs are a source of cutting-edge scholarship and insights.

The Mission Statement:

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.

 

The mission includes publication of a significant 2-year research project with Astor Services

Dr. Stefan de Schill, long-time AMHF Director of Research, photographed in Vienna circa 1938

“There are three basic factors in daily existence that are utterly incomprehensible to us: time, because it is eternal; space, because it is infinite; and our consciousness, because it defies all explanation.”—Dr. Stefan de Schill, whose life and work are marked in 2025, a year of healing around the world: the 108th anniversary of his birth, 20th of his death.

• At least 50 percent of all people seeking medical treatment are suffering from emotional disturbances, but only three cents of every medical dollar is spent on emotional illness.
• “The anxiety and problems other people suffer when caught up in a major crisis, we have to face day by day.”—a patient
• Millions of Americans will be victims of emotional breakdown and spend at least a part of their lives in an institution.
• Less than two percent of those suffering from deep-rooted emotional problems such as anxiety, depression, and phobias will ever obtain competent professional help bringing about lasting results.

2025 AMHF Board of Directors and Executives

• Sister Joan M. Curtin, CND (vice president), is former long-time director of the Catechetical Office of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. A graduate of Saint Jean Baptiste High School, she received her BA in English from Notre Dame College, an MA in Religion from Manhattanville University, and holds certificates both in Spirituality and Spiritual Direction. She has served on the boards of the National Catholic Education Association, the American Bible Society, and the Catholic Education Institute. Sister Joan was named Vicar for Religious, by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, on September 1, 2021.
• Raymond B. Flannery Jr., Ph.D., FACLP (member) is a licensed clinical psychologist and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. He has also served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and Boston College. For 10 years, he was Director of Training for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. He is the author of 10 books and over 180 peer-reviewed papers in the medical and scientific journals on the topics of stress, psychological trauma, and violence. Dr. Flannery designed the Assaulted Staff Action Program (ASAP), a crisis-intervention program that has treated 10,650 employee victims of assault.
• John P. Fowler (former chairman and former treasurer; special consultant at-large) was long-time publisher and vice president National Review, an influential magazine of political opinion, as well as trustee of NRI. An alumnus of Regis High School and the College of the Holy Cross, he also has served on the Milford, Connecticut, Board of Aldermen and is former Republican Town Committee Chairman. On May 1, 2016, Mr. Fowler relinquished his position on the AMHF Board, continuing as nonvoting-member treasurer and financial consultant in 2017-18; and as of July 1, 2019, Mr. Fowler is senior director, strategic partnerships, Center for Civil Society, and is no longer AMHF treasurer. (The role of acting treasurer, in 2023-24, is filled, on a temporary basis, by Evander Lomke [see below].)
• Michelle Harrison, MD (secretary), began her career in rural South Carolina as part of the LBJ War on Poverty. She is the author of the first book on PMS (Self-help for Premenstrual Syndrome). Dr. Harrison is a Fellow in Psychopharmacology at the New England Medical Center Hospital, Tufts University. In 2006 she founded in Calcutta (Kolkata), and since directs, Childlife Preserve Shishur Sevay, for orphan girls, many with profound disabilities. For a more complete bio-sketch of Dr. Harrison, please click here. For additional on her lifework click here and here.
• Evander Lomke (president & executive director; acting treasurer 2023-25) is a former publishing executive, acquiring or editing more than 1,500 books by authors as diverse as Carol J. Adams, David Bianculli, Donald Bogle, William F. Buckley Jr., President George W. Bush, Reuben Fine, Raymond B. Flannery Jr., Lucy Freeman, Paulo Freire, Erich Fromm, Martin Burgess Green, Hans Kueng, Edward Wagenknecht, Dick Weissman, and Mason Williams. Mr. Lomke is on the board of directors of AHRC of New York City (Arc of New York), an alumnus of the Bronx High School of Science, CCNY, and the University of Toronto, and has directed The American Mental Health Foundation since 2005.

• 2025 AMHF Professional Advisory Board

  • Dr. Pamela C. Alexander
  • Dr. Joanne H. Gavin
  • Michelle Harrison, MD
  • Dr. Henry Kellerman
  • Gail Kinn, LCSW
  • Dr. Gregory K. Popcak
  • Dr. James Campbell Quick
  • Dr. Paul Quinnett
  • Dr. Jeanine Lee Skorinko
  • Alexis Tomarken, MSW, PhD
  • William Van Ornum, PhD, FAPA

  2025 Committee on Public Education

  • Donald B. Lehr
  • Charles Roth
  • William Van Ornum, PhD, FAPA

To learn more about the history of AMHF, click here.

From June 1, 2018, to December 31, 2019, The American Mental Health Foundation was proudly recognized as an accredited charity by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Fiscal-and-governance transparency in support of the Mission Statement (see above) continue as this organization had under the BBB. The Donate page of this site lists (scroll down) the latest federal and New York State Charities Bureau filings.