NAMI News

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.

In August, 2000, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) wrote a detailed letter asking you to spare the life of Alexander Williams, a man with a longstanding severe mental illness, by commuting his death sentence to a more humane alternative sentence.

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.

Based on My Sister's Keeper: Learning to Cope with a Sibling's Mental Illness (1993) by Margaret Moorman, which included discussion of NAMI support groups, this true story is about the journey of discovery, respect and independence between two sisters. Christine (Bates) is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder as a teenager. 

Weston is incompetent to stand trial. Treatment of his illness with medication potentially will make him well enough not only to be tried and convicted, but also executed, even though he was deeply ill at the time the tragic crime occurred.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) has inaugurated a new design for its award-winning Web site, www.nami.org, which draws approximately 700,000 distinct visitors per month—an increase of more than 130 percent from two years ago.