From The CEO

It's easy to get distracted and forget that there are so many people that help try to make life better.

As the Executive Director of NAMI, I get many heartbreaking emails and take NAMI HelpLine calls about individuals who are not doing well and families who are suffering with their loved one. Much of the conversation in the mental health community regarding these situations has focused on the poor outcomes, including criminalization, emergency room boarding and homelessness.

Help raise concern, Get people thinking and talking. Whether a candidate is running for Congress or a county board, they need to see and hear that people in their communities care about mental health care.

Today, 1 in 5 people in jails and prisons in this country live with a mental illness. About 70 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have a mental health condition. This criminalization of mental illness is tragic and it’s wrong.

As Congress goes into its August recess, it has yet to act on legislative proposals to improve mental health care in the U.S.  Nearly two years after the Sandy Hook elementary school tragedy in Newtown, Conn. focused attention on the nation’s broken mental health system, there has been much discussion in Congress about how to improve mental health care but very little resolution.    

The diversity of our lived experiences is part of what make NAMI unique. As NAMI, we stand together to advocate for innovations that hold the promise of recovery for everyone.

NAMI works every day to raise awareness and educate the public about mental illness. The month of May is a time when we can join forces to make a bigger statement by observing Mental Health Month. Each year NAMI provides support, educates the public and advocates for equal care for the millions of Americans affected by illness—and each year the movement grows stronger. In 2013, President Obama proclaimed May as National Mental Health Awareness Month and brought the issue of mental health to the forefront of our thoughts.

There is no one path to recovery.

One size does not fit all.

These sometimes are hard facts to accept, because they mean there are no simple answers; however, they are still a source of hope for people living with mental illness

Last month, in my first blog entry as NAMI’s new executive director, I wrote that I was deliberately spending much of my time listening to NAMI members and others and learning from them. So far, it has been an energizing process.

This is my first blog entry as NAMI’s new executive director and my second full week on the job. In starting my new job, I am deliberately spending much of my time listening to NAMI members and others and learning from them.