Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) is October 4-10, designated by Congress a decade ago to promote public education about serious mental illnesses such as major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Other diagnoses include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and borderline personality disorder.
Why should you care?
Because mental illness does not discriminate. No one is immune.
About 60 million Americans experience mental health problems in any given year. One in 17 lives with the most serious conditions. 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, but 10 or more years may pass between the onset of symptoms and getting help. One reason for delay is the stigma that is wrongly associated with mental illness, which the U.S. Surgeon General has identified as a barrier to care.
In the Army, the suicide rate has been the highest in over 25 years. Two years ago, the number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the Department of Veterans Affairs jumped by 20,000—almost 70 percent.
Mental illnesses are medical illnesses. That is the starting point for understanding, as well as treatment and recovery. That’s why MIAW and public education are important, so we can take care of ourselves and those we love.
Small steps in educating yourself count. Visit www.nami.org and browse information about different diagnoses and courses of treatment. Learn symptoms as warning signs.
During MIAW, simply renting a DVD of the movies The Soloist or Canvas and watching them with family or friends can make a difference. Afterwards, discuss together what you knew—or didn’t know—about mental illness beforehand.
NAMI-Vermilion County is sponsoring their fourth annual candlelight vigil in observance of Mental Illness Awareness Week on Thursday, October 8, at 6:30 p.m. at the Vermilion Street garden lawn area (west side) of the Danville Public Library. Please mark your calendars, bring your lawn chairs. (Rain location is the gym at First Presbyterian Church, 100 N. Franklin, in Danville.
Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) is October 4-10, designated by Congress a decade ago to promote public education about serious mental illnesses such as major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Other diagnoses include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and borderline personality disorder.
Why should you care?
Because mental illness does not discriminate. No one is immune.
About 60 million Americans experience mental health problems in any given year. One in 17 lives with the most serious conditions. 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, but 10 or more years may pass between the onset of symptoms and getting help. One reason for delay is the stigma that is wrongly associated with mental illness, which the U.S. Surgeon General has identified as a barrier to care.
In the Army, the suicide rate has been the highest in over 25 years. Two years ago, the number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the Department of Veterans Affairs jumped by 20,000—almost 70 percent.
Mental illnesses are medical illnesses. That is the starting point for understanding, as well as treatment and recovery. That’s why MIAW and public education are important, so we can take care of ourselves and those we love.
Small steps in educating yourself count. Visit www.nami.org and browse information about different diagnoses and courses of treatment. Learn symptoms as warning signs.
During MIAW, simply renting a DVD of the movies The Soloist or Canvas and watching them with family or friends can make a difference. Afterwards, discuss together what you knew—or didn’t know—about mental illness beforehand.
NAMI-Vermilion County is sponsoring their fourth annual candlelight vigil in observance of Mental Illness Awareness Week on Thursday, October 8, at 6:30 p.m. at the Vermilion Street garden lawn area (west side) of the Danville Public Library. Please mark your calendars, bring your lawn chairs. (Rain location is the gym at First Presbyterian Church, 100 N. Franklin, in Danville.
Vermilion Co.
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