NAMI

The National Alliance on Mental Illness(NAMI) is a nonprofit, grassroots, self-help, support and advocacy organization of consumers, families, and friends of people with mental illness.  The state organization – NAMI Maryland is dedicated to supporting the above, that is, the persons, families, and communities affected by mental illness.

In addition… the local affiliate – NAMI Anne Arundel County – is working to positively impact the lives of the individuals, families, and friends affected by mental illness in Anne Arundel County by reducing stigma and providing support, education, and advocacy.

To learn more, call 443-569-3498 or email: NAMIannearundel@NAMI.org

Website:   http://www.localcommunities.org/lc/namiAAcounty

Check out the excellent  NAMI website (www.nami.org )  for videos and the latest news on research, treatment, and policy for those with mental health issues.

You are welcomed to join the many thousands of Americans dedicated to improving the lives of people with mental illness. When you join for just $35… you become a part of NAMI at the national, state, and local levels. Member benefits include The Advocate, member discounts, convention registration discounts, access to our online member community, and more.   ↓

In 2001, a national journal described NAMI in an article on evidence-based practices and showed how NAMI and the research findings by the authors were in agreement in several areas.

Psychiatr Serv 52:1462-1468, November 2001
© 2001 American Psychiatric Association

Integrating Evidence-Based Practices and the Recovery Model

Frederick J. Frese, III, Ph.D., Jonathan Stanley, J.D., Ken Kress, J.D., Ph.D. and Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia, M.D.

NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS

Of the consumer advocacy entities that were formed during the past quarter century, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) is by far the largest. NAMI was founded as recently as 1979. As of the summer of 2001, NAMI had a membership of more than 210,000—with more than 1,200 affiliates—located in all 50 states. NAMI currently supports a full-time staff of more than 60.

NAMI initially functioned as a group that advocated primarily for the families of persons with serious mental illnesses. However, the influence of the consumers in NAMI has become increasingly important. The organization has a large consumer council. During the past several years at least one quarter of the members of NAMI’s board of directors have been consumers. However, despite this growing influence, the tens of thousands of consumer members of NAMI do not speak as an independent organization but blend their concerns with those of the majority of the NAMI members—for the most part, family members.

NAMI has a long and complex policy agenda but recently has given special prominence to what the organization sees as eight particularly important policy issues. These priorities are characterized by NAMI as being “based on the most effective standards and programs demonstrated to empower individuals on the road to recovery.” Published and widely distributed as the “Omnibus Mental Illness Recovery Act: A Blueprint for Recovery—OMIRA” (22), these eight NAMI priorities are participation by consumers and their family members in planning of mental illness services; equitable health care coverage, or parity, in health insurance; access to newer medications; assertive community treatment; work incentives for persons who have severe mental illness; reduction in life-threatening and harmful actions and restraints; reduction in the criminalization of persons who have severe mental illness; and access to permanent, safe, and affordable housing with appropriate community-based services.

There is noticeable overlap between NAMI’s policy priorities and the six core interventions outlined by Drake and colleagues. One area—assertive community treatment—is clearly prioritized, under the same term, by both NAMI and proponents of evidence-based practices. The call for prescription of medications within specific parameters is somewhat addressed by NAMI’s prioritizing access to newer medications. Moreover, NAMI was an active participant in the public launch of the findings of the Schizophrenia Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT), which gave wide distribution to the specific recommended parameters for prescribed antipsychotic medications (23). NAMI also produced and distributed more than 500,00 brochures highlighting these recommendations.

These efforts, which support the PORT results, also highlighted the recommended evidence-based interventions for assertive community treatment and for family psychoeducation. Indeed, although neither is explicitly designated as an evidence-based practice, NAMI has two major training initiatives related to psychoeducation: the Family-to-Family program, which focuses on education of family members, and the Living With Schizophrenia program, which teaches consumers to better live with their disorders. This latter effort primarily involves self-management of illness and thus is also related to another of the designated core interventions of Drake and colleagues.

The fifth core initiative under the evidence-based practice model—supported employment—is encompassed in OMIRA under work incentives for persons with severe mental illness, even though the two are not identical. Finally, although NAMI has yet to develop an explicit policy initiative that calls for integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment, the national NAMI board has been actively weighing the pros and cons of taking a position that supports this initiative.

In a broader yet specific demonstration of support by NAMI for the six evidence-based practice initiatives, the president of the NAMI board recently sent a letter to all 16 national board members that highlighted the importance of the evidence-based practices movement.

NAMI, of course, was started by family members of persons who were very disabled with mental illnesses. The needs of the most disabled persons continues to be the organization’s priority. Many of the consumers for whom NAMI lobbies tend to be too disabled to effectively speak for themselves. Many of them are not ready to benefit from the recovery model. NAMI can be expected to provide strong support for evidence-based practice initiatives but will not necessarily be uncritical. On the other hand, agenda statements have been made by organized groups of consumer advocates during the past decade that have presented the collective voices of persons who are further along in their recovery—persons who are better able to speak for themselves.