NAMI News

Beyond the comments expressed in my letter to Mr. Berg, I am greatly concerned about the reckless indifference that ABC will demonstrate by airing the series. The program poses a potentially dangerous threat to the health and welfare of Americans with mental illnesses.

Consumers and families who deal with life-threatening mental illnesses everyday will be stunned and hurt that the first network television program to deal solely with mental illness is relentlessly stereotypical and bleak. Wonderland offers no hope and no vision of the reality of recovery.

The case has stood all along for the failures of America's mental health system. Unfortunately, it now also stands for the inadequacy of our legal system in addressing issues that involve mental illness.

Mental illnesses are biological brain disorders, and must be treated equally with disabilities involving any other bodily organ or system. Health insurance plans must not discriminate in amount, duration, or scope between mental illnesses and other diagnoses.

People with mental illness are being injured or killed almost weekly through the improper use of restraints. Congress needs to put in place standards and a system to end such abuses, before any more adults or children die.

In preparation for the House Committee on Energy & Commerce's mark-up of the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reauthorization bill, and because of recent reports of additional deaths

NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, is pleased to serve as a national partner of the fifth annual Brain Awareness Week, March 13-19, 2000. During Brain Awareness Week, a project of the Dana Alliance for Brain Research, the Alliance will release "Update 2000: Brain Research in the new Millennium," its annual report.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) has requested an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into Florida's treatment of children with serious brain disorders, following the February 5th death of 12-year-old boy with mental illness at a wilderness camp for juvenile offenders.

We applaud the courage of U.S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) in disclosing publicly that he has battled depression since adolescence, takes medication, and regularly sees a psychiatrist.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) this evening honored members of Congress and the Clinton Administration for their leadership in making the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 a reality.