Foundation for Addiction and Mental Health
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Mission Statement
FAMH is a grass roots community based charitable organization committed to sharing the reality about addiction and mental health, the potential links between addiction and other secondary health conditions, and the continuing care required for long term recovery. FAMH was founded in 2013 by members of the community whose experience with addiction and mental health and recovery was different from the prevailing societal perceptions, professional opinions, and government policies. They envision high quality prevention, assessment and treatment services for addiction and mental health issues, provided in a stigma-free environment, within a holistic (biological, psychological, social and spiritual) model of health and well-being.
About This Cause
The Foundation for Addiction and Mental Health (FAMH) is a Calgary, Alberta based charitable organization established in October 2013 Charitable status was granted in October 2014. The Foundation consists of a nine (9) member board, executive director, medical adviser, staff and volunteers. FAMH members have a wealth of experience in the field of addiction including personal experience with addiction and recovery and what works and doesn’t work at different stages of addiction. We know it is possible to recover from severe addiction. Our goal is to bring state of the art understanding and awareness of Addiction and Mental Health to main stream society and promote the highest quality services for prevention, early assessment and recovery. Properly addressing addiction and mental health early, continually, and holistically will have a positive impact on the lives of everyone affected by these issues. We have developed and are looking towards implementing a model which addresses this objective. Our Mission is the promotion of the highest quality services for prevention, assessment and treatment for addiction and mental health problems. Increase awareness of the biological, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of health conditions for prevention, assessment and treatment of all illnesses, especially recognizing the mental health and addiction related problems that may be part of the causality and/or complications. Increase awareness, access, support, accountability and integration of professional and community services for prevention, assessment, treatment and recovery of addiction and mental health problems in a continuing care framework. We strive to build awareness, challenge social stigma and celebrate the role that recovery plays in improving life for individuals, families and communities. Why The Need Exists:- There is a gap between awareness and understanding of addiction and the effective deployment of primary care. There is a further gap between primary care and the holistic treatment of individuals with addiction. Addiction is being treated on an acute basis – we are often treating the apparent symptoms not the individual needs of sufferers. Significant resources are being deployed on short term fixes with often limited success. Why FAMH? : - Our innovative health care model brings a different approach to the understanding, assessment, care and relief from the disease of addiction. We have developed a new and innovative mental health care model and are actively working with the community to campaign for adoption of our model as a collaborative initiative within the current health care system .Our pilot model brings together what is best about the available resources in communities, health care and modern understanding of addiction and puts them together to bring a measurably effective, holistic solution for sufferers, those close to them and the community. FAMH aims to make a connection between current resources and leading edge research/methods on addiction and addiction treatment, and be a facilitator of information to affect improvements on addiction treatment/diagnosis methods: The combination of existing thinking, innovation of new ideas and the effective application of these ideas lead towards the prevention and early assessment of addiction. We believe our early prevention methods can be applied to many other mental health conditions and make a positive impact. Our public awareness programs are organized and run entirely by volunteers and are made available on a no fee basis. Examples of our activities to date include:- In 2014 we supported the University of Calgary student run clinic in a half day addiction symposium: - Keynote speaker Dr. Mel Pohl, MD, FASAM - Medical Director of the Las Vegas Recovery Center In 2015 we hosted our first Mind the Brain education seminar: Fully funded and organized by FAMH:- - 180 attendees with a broad audience - people in recovery, primary care providers, mental health specialists, members of governments, and students - Two speakers:- Dr. Eliot Gardner, PhD ,National Institute on Drug Abuse (Baltimore, MD) and , Dr. Raju Hajela MB (Medical Advisor to FAMH) - Panel discussion included Dr. Nicole Sherron, PhD (Alberta Family Wellness Initiative), Dr. Glynnis Lieb, PhD (Lieutenant Governors Circle on Mental Health and Addiction) and two community members in recovery. In 2016 FAMH began its Public Information Sessions: Seasonally run twice a month in Calgary and specifically designed to provide members of the public with the state of the art understanding of Addiction and other Mental Health Conditions including prevention and early assessment.