Press Releases

NAMI is pleased to join the World Health Organization (WHO) in observing World Health Day on April 6, 2001. An annual event, this year's observance for the first time focuses specifically on mental health and mental illnesses.

National and state leaders of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) have called on Governor George Pataki of New York for a statewide investigation of neglect and abuse of people with mental illness in the for-profit "board and care" (adult home) industry.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) today announced the appointment of Richard Birkel, Ph.D., as executive director of the nation's largest grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and adults with mental illnesses. Birkel, currently president and CEO of the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute (Kennedy Institute) in Washington, D.C., will start on April 23, 2001.

The public is outraged, parents are grieving, and fingers are pointed at the availability of guns, at broken families, at peer pressure, or at a pervasively violent culture. But no matter what experts may say, we all should know at least one thing instinctively: 14 and 15 year olds who resort to violence may be suffering from more than just alienation.

NAMI is pleased to partner with HBO to help direct people to treatment information that can save lives.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) this week released two important tools for advocates seeking to protect the rights of consumers with mental illnesses in managed care systems, and to preserve access to effective medications in public and private health plan formularies.

According to the Harris Interactive survey released today by Johns Hopkins University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the "Partnership for Solutions" consortium [see below], which includes NAMI, two-thirds of Americans believe they are likely to develop a chronic illness in their lifetime. 

For those who missed it the first time, NAMI encourages all American families to tune in to the Discovery Channel's remarkable documentary on schizophrenia, one of the world's most misunderstood illnesses.

It's called "suicide by cop," in which a suicidal individual deliberately seeks to create a dangerous situation so that police are forced to shoot. Like Mr. Pickett, sometimes the person is only wounded. Other times, the shooting is fatal.

NAMI commends Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Representatives Pete Sessions (R-TX) and Henry Waxman (D-CA) for today introducing the "Family Opportunity Act of 2001" to help families with children who have severe and chronic disorders, including the early-onset of mental illnesses.