NAMI News

Richard T. (Dick) Greer, 76, who in the 1980s helped spearhead the drive to refocus the federal government’s research efforts toward the biological basis for mental illnesses and to increase research funding and community services, died of acute leukemia on January 13, 2003 at his Arlington, Virginia home.

Today's interim report is an important first step. It defines critical problems in the nation's mental healthcare system-and confirms the fact that after three decades of broken promises, the system is worse than many people ever imagined.

It is a recurring problem that has to stop," said Rick Birkel, executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), which earlier this month launched a "Campaign for the Mind of America" to eliminate stigma and seek broad reforms in the nation's mental health system.

NAMI advocates throughout the nation are shocked and saddened to learn that the lives of Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), his wife and daughter were tragically cut short today in the crash of a small plane in northern Minnesota.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) today announced the launch of the "Campaign for the Mind of America," a multi-year effort on many fronts to promote investment in recovery-and to prevent the abandonment of yet another generation of Americans with mental illnesses to neglect and hopelessness.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) criticized the House of Representatives' Committee on Government Reform for scheduling a hearing tomorrow on the "Overmedication of Hyperactive Children" -- late in the waning days of the legislative session -- that "will largely recycle bad science and trivializes the need for early identification and treatment of mental illnesses in children and adolescents."

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) is pleased to welcome the selection of Thomas Insel, M.D. of Emory University in Atlanta as the new Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

La National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI - Alianza Nacional para Enfermos Mentales), la organización líder nacional dedicada a mejorar las vidas de las personas que sufren severas enfermedades mentales, rindió su testimonio hoy ante la Comisión de Salud Mental "New Freedom" del Presidente Bush, pidiendo reformas que logren "competencia cultural" en el sistema de tratamientos de la nación.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), the nation's largest organization dedicated to improving life for people with severe mental illnesses, testifying today before President Bush's "New Freedom" Commission on Mental Health, called for reforms that achieve "cultural competence" in the nation's treatment system.

Charles Curie, head of the federal Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and member of President Bush's newly-appointed New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, told members of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) at their annual convention today that the nation's mental health care system needs to enter a new "era of recovery" driven by consumer and family needs and preferences.