NAMI is a proud leader in recognizing National Minority Mental Health Awareness month, named in honor of Bebe Moore Campbell, former author and NAMI advocate. We thank NAMI leaders and our partners for joining in our 2011 celebration of mental health awareness among diverse communities and focus on the importance of access to quality, culturally-responsive care during this special month.    In case you missed it, take a look at our July 2011 issue of Recovery for All, devoted to National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, highlighting activities around the country, perspectives of diverse NAMI leaders and new resources.

In 2008 the US House of Representatives proclaimed July as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. This provides NAMI state and affiliates with a wonderful opportunity to reach out to diverse communities. Click here to learn more about Bebe and the 2008 resolution. 

Raising Awareness

NAMI leaders can raise awareness of mental illness, treatment, and research in diverse communities during this month by hosting special events and partnering with local businesses and organizations. Your experience with Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) could give you a good idea of the types of activities and events to host to raise mental health awareness. 

Click here for highlights of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month activities and events.

The Multicultural Action Center has provided several suggestions to help NAMI states and affiliates plan for National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month efforts and has available resources to support your efforts.

Suggested activities:

• Host an In Our Own Voice presentation in a community-specific setting (a local African American community
  center, a Latino church, a GLBT organization, etc.)
• Host an “Ask the Doctor” session focusing on a specific community or focusing on issues such as ethnopsychopharmacology or cultural competence in treatment.
• Host a free mental health screening at a multicultural location and make sure you have your screening instruments available in other languages.
• Donate minority mental health related books to your local library making sure you include community specific books such as:
  
  
  • 72-Hour Hold by Bebe Moore Campbell
  • Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry by Bebe Moore Campbell
  • The Seven Beliefs: A Step-by Step Guide to Help Latinas Recognize and Overcome Depression by Belisa Lozano-Vranich and Jorge R. Petit (in English and Spanish)
  • Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting by Terrie Williams
  • I Am Not Sick. I do Not Need Help by Xavier Amador (in English and Spanish)
  • Standing in the Shadows: Understanding and Overcoming Depression in Black Men by John Head

  Order your books on Amazon through the NAMI Store for additional savings. Take a photo of the NAMI leader and librarian receiving the donation and send it, along with a summary, to the local newspaper for additional exposure.

• Partner with multicultural organizations to plan and host your events.
• Target multicultural media outlets to spread your message. The media can be the best vehicle for communicating your messages to the public. Use NAMI’s media tool kit to plan your media strategy.
• Host a NAMI Sharing Hope: Understanding Mental Health presentation.
  
  
  • Sharing Hope: Understanding Mental Health is a new initiative to bring mental health education to African American congregations and address stigma in this community.

No matter what activities or efforts you take on for the month, make sure you involve members from your target community in order to ensure that your plans are relevant, responsive to the community’s needs and as culturally meaningful as possible.

Click here to access the recording of the National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month planning webinar, held in February 2010, featuring information on social marketing, media outreach and an activity example from 2009.

Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month on Facebook

Resources

NAMI’s Multicultural Action Center has available resources to help you successfully develop and implement your multicultural efforts, such as our Basic Steps for Successful Multicultural Outreach and NAMI’s Multicultural Outreach Planning Guide.

These materials provide a step-by-step approach to multicultural outreach.  Additionally, the Multicultural Action Center provides a great variety of brochures and fact sheets that specifically focus on mental health issues in diverse communities. Access these resources here.

Bebe Moore Campbell.

Bebe Moore Campbell was an accomplished author, advocate, co-founder of NAMI Urban Los Angeles and national spokesperson, who passed away in November 2006.

She received NAMI's 2003 Outstanding Media Award for Literature for the book Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry, written especially for children, about a young girl who learns how to cope with her mother's bipolar illness. In 2005, her novel 72-Hour Hold focused on an adult daughter and a family's experience with the onset of mental illness. It helped educate Americans that the struggle often is not just with the illness, but with the healthcare system as well.

Campbell advocated for mental health education and support among individuals with mental illness and their families of diverse communities.

To order her books, and help NAMI, visit Amazon.com

_{Back to top}

Creation of Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.

In May 2008 the US House of Representatives proclaimed July as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Albert Wynn [D-MD] and cosponsored by a large bipartisan group, was passed in recognition that:

• Improved access to mental health treatment and services and public awareness of mental illness are of paramount importance;and
• An appropriate month should be recognized as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month to enhance public awareness of mental illness and mental illness among minorities.

Click here for more details and full text of resolution H. Con. Res. 134. Read NAMI's letter of support for this important resolution here.

For a narrative of the events leading up to the creation of this Awareness Month, see this article in the August 2008 issue of Recovery for All, the e-newsletter of the Multicultural Action Center.

_{Back to top}

Highlights of 2011 Activities.

NAMI San Francisco member, LaVaughn King takes the mic at the 2011 National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Town Hall event at the NAMI 2011 annual convention in Chicago, July 7

• NAMI's Multicultural Action Center was named the National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health (NNED) Partner of the Month for July 2011 in honor of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country the NNED selects an organization to highlight once a month.
• A National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month town hall networking event was held at the 2011 NAMI Annual Convention for the third year as NAMI’s kick-off celebration of the month. Participants were provided with information about the month and resources available through NAMI. Many stood to express personal enthusiasm for the meaning of this special month and shared local plans for events and activities taking place throughout July. 
• NAMI released a new set of multilingual resources on Asian American and Pacific Islander mental health issues. Each fact sheet of this series is available in English, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.
• Members of NAMI's Diversity and Inclusion Work Group provided their personal experiences and perspectives on National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Their stories were shared during the town hall networking event at the NAMI Convention in Chicago as well as through Recovery for All.
• NAMI Lexington (Ky.) is hosted a variety of events throughout the month including an informational workshop for Latino immigrant families, a mini conference featuring the Sharing Hope program and an annual block party—this year as a reunion of Family-to-Family graduates. Affiliate leader, Yolonda Clay, appeared as a guest on the local TV news to spread the word about National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.
• NAMI New Jersey provided free community screenings of its 2009 documentary, Documenting Our Presence, throughout the state during July, promoted through leaders of its multicultural outreach programs, AACT-NOW!, CAMHOP, SAMHAJ and NAMI NJ en Español. The award-winning documentary provides a compassionate, hopeful look at the experiences of people of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds who are affected by serious mental illness.
• The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, NAMI Virginia and Colaborando Juntos sponsored a National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Media Contest. Hosts and participants of activities throughout the state promoting awareness of mental illness, prevention, treatment and research in diverse communities were eligible for awards for submitting photos, videos and other creative media featuring their activities. Winners will be announced and awarded in August.
• The National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health (NNED) and NAMI presented a Webinar, "Empowering Our Voices: Developing & Sustaining Multicultural Consumer Networks" which highlighted two networks formed by the Center for Mental Health Services and the four minority behavioral health organizations as examples of current multicultural consumer efforts taking place nationwide. The National Latino Behavioral Health Association and the National Leadership Council on African American Behavioral Health shared highlights from their efforts to date.
• Flipswitch, the portal of information for teens and 20-somethings sponsored by the Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation, featured a series of short podcasts about minorities and mental health throughout July:
  • Tribute to Bebe Moore Campbell with reenactments of 2 scenes from her book 72-Hour Hold
  • Hanh’s Story (part 1 and 2): the daughter of Vietnamese-American immigrants discusses how both cultures impact living with bipolar disorder
  • Victor’s Story (part 1 and 2): a Puerto Rican pastor discusses his family’s experience with depression and bipolar disorder
  • Melody’s Story (part 1 and 2): an Iranian-American Muslim author and attorney busts stigma of bipolar disorder and challenges Islamophobia 

2010 Highlights

• The National Asian American and Pacific Islander Mental Health Association will host a Town Hall Meeting in San Jose California in collaboration with the Santa Clara County Mental Health Department, Asian Americans for Community Involvement, Richmond Area Multi-Services, Inc. and the California Reducing Disparities Project.  Congressman Mike Honda and Assemblyman Mike Eng will address the impact of mental health of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in California.
• NAMI Lexington (Ky.) enjoyed lots of music, dancing, food, and fun while hosting a “Block Party” celebration in early July with African American and Hispanic/Latino faith communities from the Lexington area. Members of NAMI Lexington’s Multicultural Action Committee have appeared on a local educational television program and Christian radio network to promote their efforts and will run PSAs through local radio stations throughout July.
• The Cultural Competence Committee of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services and the Multicultural Committee of NAMI New York State will be co-hosting a teleconference discussion of Bebe Moore Campbell’s 72 Hour Hold in honor of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.
• NAMI New Jersey En Español, led by Martha Silva, recipient of NAMI's 2010 Multicultural Outreach Award, is hosting a spanish-language informational seminar for the Latino/Hispanic community in collaboration with the National Resource Center for Hispanic Mental Health and New Jersey Mental Health Institute, Inc. The seminar will feature expert speakers on the topics of mental health concerns related to aging as well as mental/physical/emotional wellbeing.
• The Council of the District of Columbia unanimously approved the “Bebe Moore Campbell District of Columbia Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Resolution" of 2010. The resolution was introduced by At-Large Councilmember Michael A. Brown and co-introduced by Councilmembers Harry Thomas and David Catania. The resolution was announced at a  community reception held in mid-July which included friends and family of Bebe Moore Campbell, DC officials and mental health advocates.

2009 Highlights

• NAMI National hosted a variety of sessions and events covering multicultural issues including a Town Hall meeting in honor of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month during the NAMI 2009 Convention, July 6-9, in San Francisco. Visit the NAMI Convention Web site for recaps, photos, and downloadable PowerPoint presentations. 
• NAMI Urban Los Angeles coordinated a wealth of activities including a Veterans of Color Health and Wellness Fair, a ”Color of Justice” symposium and a quilting bee in honor of Bebe Moore Campbell, a founding member of the affiliate. Visit the NAMI Urban Los Angeles Web site for more information.
• NAMI Tennessee held the state's first Native American Mental Health Summit to address Native American mental health disparities in Tennessee and provide a platform to discuss and advocate for resolution between Native family members, mental health consumers and health care providers. Click here for a report summary of that event provided by NAMI Tennessee.
• NAMI Nebraska hosted a presentation featuring a diverse panel of speakers who provided information on mental health issues and personal perspectives on minority mental health as well as information about NAMI signature education and support programs. NAMI Nebraska also hosted presentations of NAMI's Sharing Hope program, a presentation designed to initiate discussions of mental health and strategies of support among African American congregations.  
• NAMI Dorchester/Mattapan/Roxbury (Mass.) coordinated an expert panel in geriatric, adult and child populations, addiction, inpatient and outpatient treatment, the interaction between mental illness and physical illness and the role of churches in mental health treatment in black communities. The panel discussed the impact of addiction, depression, dementia, chronic medical illness, ADHD and other mental illnesses on individuals, families and the community. The event was co-sponsored by the Cambridge Health Alliance with support from the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) grant for diversity.

2008 Highlights

Events were held across the country during the first Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, July 2008, to honor the former author and to raise mental health awareness in communities of color:

• Helen Blocker-Adams, founder and executive director of Hope is Possible, an Augusta, Georgia, advocacy organization, was inspired by the month and hosted a Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month awareness and fund-raiser breakfast themed, “Let’s Take Action!” Nearly 50 individuals attended this event in Augusta, including Mayor Deke Copenhaver, Rep. John Barrow, District Director Reagan Williams on behalf of Rep. Paul Broun, and leaders of NAMI Augusta and Mental Health America of Augusta.
• Linda Wharton-Boyd, longtime friend of Campbell, held a panel discussion in D.C., developed a media tour schedule in which she made appearances on several radio shows, and, to encourage mental health awareness at every age level, organized a children’s read-in.
• NAMI Urban Los Angeles coordinated a successful and ambitious range of activities, beginning with a proclamation and press conference July 1. This was followed shortly after by a presentation during the Leimert Park 4th of July Jazz Festival. July 16, the NAMI affiliate hosted a VIP reception at the California African American Museum, drawing individuals from the American Psychiatric Association and Black Psychiatrists of America, local political figures, and NAMI Urban Los Angeles board members. The group cohosted an informative event with the APA’s Office of Minority Affairs Tour, which attracted more than 200 participants, and organized faith-based outreach every Sunday of the month, sending members to visit 20 churches to speak about mental health and available support. Finally, at the end of the month, as a special tribute to its cofounder, NAMI Urban Los Angeles organized a mental health fair and candlelight vigil.

_{Back to top}

Join NAMI today!