DEAR DR. GOTT: I read your column about the family with a daughter/sister with schizophrenia. I agree with the advice that you provided the family: Seek psychiatric help for the daughter/sister. I would also like to add a suggestion: Let the family and all your other readers know about NAMI National.
This is a grassroots organization with a mission to educate, support and advocate for families and consumers. It has more than 200,000 members worldwide. There are NAMI affiliates in all 50 states. For more information, the website is www.nami.org.
DEAR DR. GOTT: Regarding your excellent column about schizophrenia, I hope you will also make your readers aware of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, a family-support group offering education, understanding and hope. Our family has found it indispensable. Thanks for your advice and guidance on a topic not often addressed.
DEAR READERS: I received both your letters via my website just a day apart.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness website states that it is “the most formidable grassroots mental health advocacy organization in the country.” It has a national organization and state organizations in each of the 50 United States plus Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., as well as more than 1,200 local affiliates across the country. Based on the sheer size of this organization, its claim at being the most formidable is rightly so.
People who suffer from mental illness were often shunned, labeled as “crazy” and “put away” from public view. Thanks to further study and medical understanding of these illnesses, sufferers now often have several treatment options and do not require institutionalization, in most cases. The public’s view of these disorders has taken several steps in the right direction; however, there is still a stigma attached to mental illness. Many people fail to realize that these disorders are not the result of something the sufferer did, in the same way that rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, celiac disease and a host of other diseases and disorders are not.
Thank you for writing to let me know about this organization and its positive impact on our society.
Others who are interested in learning more about the National Alliance on Mental Illness can visit the above website or call the information helpline at (800) 950-NAMI.
About Dr. Gott