NAMI News

Late yesterday, the United States Senate passed an amendment to the FY2002 Labor, Health &, Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS) Appropriations bill, based on the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act (S.543), introduced by Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN).

Since 1996, Steven E. Hyman, M.D. has served with distinction as a brilliant, dynamic, outspoken director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), presiding over an agency with more than 1,000 scientists and budget of $1.2 billion. He will be a hard act for anyone to follow.

British health officials offered formal apologies to the Harrisons and Abram, who remains detained in a secure facility.

The report is the culmination of WHO's year-long campaign on mental health, and marks the first time in the organization's history that World Health Day and the World Health Report were both dedicated to a single topic - mental health and mental illnesses.

But even when a person with a mental illness knows the basic difference between right and wrong, the twisted logic and confusion of psychosis-which may include delusions and hallucinations-still may convince them that wrong is right, and that doing the unthinkable is what needs to be done.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) has launched a protest of products marketed by Sony Corporation of America and Mattel, Inc. that violate the U.S. Surgeon General's call on the entertainment industry to eliminate the stigma that surrounds mental illness.

In recent months we have received reports from parents appalled at the character "Psycho" featured in the Max Steel television series and sold as an action figure by Mattel. In addition, Sony is promoting hurtful, inaccurate, dehumanizing stigma about people with mental illnesses in connection with violent video games.

Today's action by the Senate Committee on Health, Employment, Labor & Pensions (HELP), recommending S.543, the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2001 unanimously to the full Senate represents an important step forward to strengthen existing law and end discrimination in insurance coverage.

Under S.543, discrimination against mental illnesses like postpartum depression would be prohibited. Introduced by U.S. Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM), Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN) to strengthen existing federal law, the bill faces an October 1, 2001 deadline when current law expires.

NAMI strongly advocates for the passing of parity laws to end discriminatory health insurance coverage for children and adults with severe mental illnesses and their families. Such legislation will strengthen current federal law and finish the work that Congress began five years ago with the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996.