NAMI Encourages Education, Conversation During Mental Illness Awareness Week

FAIRFIELD — Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) is October 4–10, designated by Congress to promote public education about serious mental illnesses such as major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders including obsessive-compulsive disorder, and borderline personality disorder.

About 60 million Americans experience mental health problems in any given year. One in 17 lives with the most serious conditions.

“Mental illnesses are medical illnesses,” said Judy Gardner, president of NAMI Fairfield, the Fairfield affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “That is the starting point for understanding, as well as treatment and recovery. Mental Illness does not discriminate. No one is immune.”

Ms Gardner points out the US Surgeon General has noted that stigma is a major barrier to people seeking help when they need it.

“That’s why education is important,” she said. “Even if friends simply rent a copy of the movie of The Soloist, watch it together and then take time to discuss what they know — or don’t know — about mental illness, that’s the kind of dialogue that can help.”

NAMI Fairfield’s First Wednesday of the Month Speaker meeting on October 7 will feature “In Our Own Voice.” This is a unique public education program developed by NAMI, in which two people share compelling personal stories about living with mental illness and achieving recovery.

Throughout the IOOV presentation, audience members are encouraged to offer feedback and ask questions. Audience participation is an important aspect of IOOV because the more audience members become involved, the closer they come to understanding what it is like to live with a mental illness and stay in recovery.

The meeting will take place in the Eliot Room Library at First Church Congregational, 148 Beach Road, from 7:30 to 9 pm. It is free of charge and open to all. Light refreshments will be served.

On average, people with serious mental illness live 25 years less than the rest of the population. One reason is that less than a third of adults and less than half of children with a diagnosed illness receive treatment.

Half of all lifetime cases begin by age 14. Long delays often occur — as much as a decade — between the onset of symptoms and getting help.

“Treatment works if you can get it,” said Ms Gardner. “We need to remove stigma and offer help in local communities. That’s a challenge that requires action. Education must precede action. That’s what NAMI is about. It means taking a step forward to strengthen our community.”

For more information about mental illness, visit www.nami.org. For questions about the October 7 meeting, call Judy at 203-650-3463.

In October, PBS stations across the country will begin to air Minds on the Edge: Facing Mental Illness, a program that challenges the mental health care system. For more information, including local broadcast dates, visit www.mindsontheedge.org.