Mental illness is often a silent disease - it's not always something you can see and because of ongoing stigma, many people with mental illness feel like they can't talk about their struggles. As someone who both suffers from mental illness (anxiety/depression) and as a social work student (soon to be graduate!) going into the mental health field, I am acutely aware of these struggles and the numerous barriers that people face in getting the help they need. NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) is a wonderful national organization working to reduce those barriers, provide support to individuals and families, and reduce the overall stigma of mental illness - and they need our support.
This is why I am participating in NAMI Walks tomorrow, April 30th - the proceeds of which will go to support local NAMI chapters and, in my county of NC, to directly support mental health providers who have been suffering under state budget cuts! More below the fold...
According to NAMI, around 6% of adults live with a serious mental illness (defined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as a mental behavioral, or emotional disorder of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria specified within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) resulting in serious functional impairment that limits one or more major life activities) and roughly 1 in 4 experience some form of mental health disorder in a given year. Yet, less than one-third of those with a diagnosable disorder receive treatment in a given year. In my state of North Carolina, close to 335,000 adults live with SPMI, but North Carolina’s public mental health system provides services to only 34% of them - one of the reasons that NAMI gave the state a "D" in its 2009 "Grading the States" report card.
There are a variety of reasons why people are unable to seek or to get treatment, but stigma, availability and accessibility of services, and the lack of broader social supports all contribute. The consequences of untreated mental illness can be devastating for individuals and their families: Individuals with severe mental illness experience higher mortality rates than the general population and mental illness is a leading cause of disability; the unemployment rate is 3 to 5 times higher for adults living with mental illness than for the general working population; lack of affordable supported housing contributes to high costs of people with mental illness cycling among hospitals, shelters, or jails; and severe mental illness accounts for nearly $200 billion in lost earnings in a given year. In fact, the lack of adequate treatment options and supports (particularly housing) has turned our nations jails in to the largest service provider for people with severe mental illness.
Those are the statistics, but for me mental illness is also personal. I have been lucky to have the resources needed to get treatment, but I still have days when just getting out of bed can feel like an impossible task. I've also had the privilege through my graduate program in social work, to walk with several people in their journeys with mental illness and recovery - seeing their frustration with the limitations of existing medications, experiencing the joy of helping them work toward and achieve goals, wanting to scream with them when the state wants to cut back the number of hours they are able to participate in critical support services. There are a lot of stories I could tell, but I imagine for many of you, such stories are familiar as well.
Because of all of this, I am joining a team of folks from the clinic where I just finished interning, to participate in tomorrow's NAMI Walks. Walks are being held in almost every state to raise awareness and funding for mental health education, advocacy, and treatment. Some of the funding will go directly to support NAMI and the support it provides to consumers and families, but my particular NAMI chapter is also giving a portion of the funding raised directly back to local mental health providers - some others may be doing the same. At my clinic, this money would help enable it to continue to provide treatment to uninsured patients and to provide an emergency fund to support folks in crisis.
Here is just one of the projects that my clinic helps support:
If you know someone whose life has been touched by mental illness, if you are frustrated by ongoing cuts to social services and supports, if you yourself know what it's like to struggle with mental illness, please consider supporting your local NAMI walk by donating or walk yourself (it's not to late to sign up!).
I do have my own personal fund-raising page if you feel inclined to give to me, but whatever support you can give, wherever you are, would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and if nothing else, take a look at NAMI's website to learn more about the organization and about mental illness.