NAMI Web Site Gets New Look

Posted on January 22, 2001

Arlington, VA - 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.

“We have come a long way since the site first was established in 1995,” said Jacqueline Shannon, president of NAMI’s Board of Directors. “It continues to be a work in progress. We are working constantly to provide information that is both current and incisive.”

“We seek to provide information that consumers with mental illnesses, their families and friends can use to help get treatment, and to push for change in the mental healthcare system at the local, state, and national levels.”

At a conference of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) in 1999, NAMI’s Web site was praised especially for effective outreach, beyond NAMI’s 220,000 members, in offering frequent updates about scientific research and ongoing legislation for better treatment and services, as well as educating people about the biological origins of mental illnesses.

The new design builds on the four pillars of NAMI’s non-profit mission: support, education, advocacy, and research. Topics previously found on NAMI’s front page have been consolidated under four vertical, left-hand categories, with cascading subcategories that appear with the touch of the cursor.

• Support information includes contacts for NAMI’s 1200 state and local affiliates, which sponsor support groups and other programs.
• Education provides more than 50 fact sheets on specific mental illnesses and treatment options, information about NAMI’s Family-to-Family and Peer-to-Peer programs, and special concerns for children and adolescents.
• Advocacy includes copies of NAMI E-News reports that circulate almost daily to approximately 12,000 policymakers and advocates nationwide, NAMI ‘s Legal Letter, legislative policy   briefs, fact sheets on legal rights, and copies of amicus curiae briefs filed by NAMI’s Legal Center in major cases.
• Research includes current articles and archives about the latest scientific research, including clinical trials of medications, ethical issues,  research review boards, NAMI’s IRB training program, and information for consumer participants.

NAMI’s Press Room is located on the Web site’s horizontal bar, providing NAMI news releases, topical press kits, speeches, testimony, and fact sheets. “ The press section is an important resource for anyone researching a story or issue, in brief or in depth,” Shannon said. “It provides tremendous historical perspective. And if reporters can’t find what they need on the site, NAMI’s communications department still will be ready to help.”