In 2008 the US House of Representatives proclaimed July as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. This provides NAMI state and affiliates with a wonderful opportunity to reach out to diverse communities. Learn more about Bebe here. Click here to learn more about the 2008 resolution. 

Raising Awareness

NAMI leaders can raise awareness of mental illness, treatment, and research in diverse communities during this month by hosting special events and partnering with local businesses and organizations. Your experience with Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) could give you a good idea of the types of activities and events to host to raise mental health awareness. 

Click here for highlights of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month activities and events.

The Multicultural Action Center has provided several suggestions to help NAMI states and affiliates plan for 2009 and has available resources to support your efforts.

Suggested activities:

• Host an In Our Own Voice presentation in a community-specific setting (a local African American community center, a Latino church, a GLBT organization, etc.)
• Host an “Ask the Doctor” session focusing on a specific community or focusing on issues such as ethnopsychopharmacology or cultural competence in treatment.
• Host a free mental health screening at a multicultural location and make sure you have your screening instruments available in other languages.
• Donate minority mental health related books to your local library making sure you include community specific books such as:
  
  
  • 72-Hour Hold by Bebe Moore Campbell
  • Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry by Bebe Moore Campbell
  • The Seven Beliefs: A Step-by Step Guide to Help Latinas Recognize and Overcome Depression by Belisa Lozano-Vranich and Jorge R. Petit (in English and Spanish)
  • Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting by Terrie Williams
  • I Am Not Sick. I do Not Need Help by Xavier Amador (in English and Spanish)
  • Standing in the Shadows: Understanding and Overcoming Depression in Black Men by John Head

  Order your books on Amazon through the NAMI Store for additional savings. Take a photo of the NAMI leader and librarian receiving the donation and send it, along with a summary, to the local newspaper for additional exposure.

• Partner with multicultural organizations to plan and host your events.
• Target multicultural media outlets to spread your message. The media can be the best vehicle for communicating your messages to the public. Use NAMI’s media tool kit to plan your media strategy.
• Host a NAMI Sharing Hope: Understanding Mental Health presentation.
  
  
  • Sharing Hope: Understanding Mental Health is a new initiative to bring mental health education to African American congregations and address stigma in this community.
• Attend sessions and events covering multicultural issues during the NAMI 2009 Convention, July 6-9, in San Francisco.

No matter what activities or efforts you take on for the month, make sure you involve members from your target community in order to ensure that your plans are relevant, responsive to the community’s needs and as culturally meaningful as possible.

Resources

NAMI’s Multicultural Action Center has available resources to help you successfully develop and implement your multicultural efforts, such as our Basic Steps for Successful Multicultural Outreach and NAMI’s Multicultural Outreach Planning Guide.

These materials provide a step-by-step approach to multicultural outreach.  Additionally, the Multicultural Action Center provides a great variety of brochures and fact sheets that specifically focus on mental health issues in diverse communities. Access these resources here.

Bebe Moore Campbell.

Bebe Moore Campbell was an accomplished author, advocate, co-founder of NAMI Urban Los Angeles and national spokesperson, who passed away in November 2006.

She received NAMI's 2003 Outstanding Media Award for Literature for the book Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry, written especially for children, about a young girl who learns how to cope with her mother's bipolar illness. In 2005, her novel 72-Hour Hold focused on an adult daughter and a family's experience with the onset of mental illness. It helped educate Americans that the struggle often is not just with the illness, but with the healthcare system as well.

Campbell advocated for mental health education and support among individuals with mental illness and their families of diverse communities.

To order her books, and help NAMI, visit Amazon.com

_{Back to top}

Creation of Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.

In May 2008 the US House of Representatives proclaimed July as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Albert Wynn [D-MD] and cosponsored by a large bipartisan group, was passed in recognition that:

• Improved access to mental health treatment and services and public awareness of mental illness are of paramount importance;and
• An appropriate month should be recognized as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month to enhance public awareness of mental illness and mental illness among minorities.

Click here for more details and full text of resolution H. Con. Res. 134. Read NAMI's letter of support for this important resolution here.

For a narrative of the events leading up to the creation of this Awareness Month, see this article in the August 2008 issue of Recovery for All, the e-newsletter of the Multicultural Action Center.

_{Back to top}

Highlights of 2009 Activities.

NAMI states and affiliates across the country are celebrating National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month 2009 with a variety of planned events. Some highlights:

• NAMI National is hosting a variety of sessions and events covering multicultural issues including a Town Hall meeting in honor of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month during the NAMI 2009 Convention, July 6-9, in San Francisco. Visit the NAMI Convention Web site for more information. 
• NAMI Urban Los Angeles is planning a wealth of activities including a Veterans of Color Health and Wellness Fair, a ”Color of Justice” symposium and a quilting bee in honor of Bebe Moore Campbell, a founding member of the affiliate. Visit the NAMI Urban Los Angeles Web site for more information.
• NAMI Tennessee will be hosting a Native American Mental Health Summit to address Native American mental health disparities in Tennessee and provide a platform to discuss and advocate for resolution between Native family members, mental health consumers and health care providers. The summit will be held on July 24, 2009 at Tennessee State University in Nashville. Click here for more information.
• NAMI Nebraska will host a presentation featuring a diverse panel of speakers who will discuss mental health issues and personal perspectives on minority mental health as well as offer information about NAMI signature education and support programs. This and similar presentations will be featured on local cable and radio stations. NAMI Nebraska will also host presentations of NAMI's Sharing Hope program, a presentation designed to initiate discussions of mental health and strategies of support among African American congregations.  
• On Tuesday, July 14 NAMI Dorchester/Mattapan/Roxbury (Mass.) will host an expert panel in geriatric, adult and child populations, addiction, inpatient and outpatient treatment, the interaction between mental illness and physical illness and the role of churches in mental health treatment in black communities. The panel will discuss the impact of addiction, depression, dementia, chronic medical illness, ADHD and other mental illnesses on individuals, families and the community. The event is co-sponsored by the Cambridge Health Alliance with support from the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) grant for diversity.

2008 Highlights

Events were held across the country during the first Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, July 2008, to honor the former author and to raise mental health awareness in communities of color:

• Helen Blocker-Adams, founder and executive director of Hope is Possible, an Augusta, Georgia, advocacy organization, was inspired by the month and hosted a Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month awareness and fund-raiser breakfast themed, “Let’s Take Action!” Nearly 50 individuals attended this event in Augusta, including Mayor Deke Copenhaver, Rep. John Barrow, District Director Reagan Williams on behalf of Rep. Paul Broun, and leaders of NAMI Augusta and Mental Health America of Augusta.
• Linda Wharton-Boyd, longtime friend of Campbell, held a panel discussion in D.C., developed a media tour schedule in which she made appearances on several radio shows, and, to encourage mental health awareness at every age level, organized a children’s read-in.
• NAMI Urban Los Angeles coordinated a successful and ambitious range of activities, beginning with a proclamation and press conference July 1. This was followed shortly after by a presentation during the Leimert Park 4th of July Jazz Festival. July 16, the NAMI affiliate hosted a VIP reception at the California African American Museum, drawing individuals from the American Psychiatric Association and Black Psychiatrists of America, local political figures, and NAMI Urban Los Angeles board members. The group cohosted an informative event with the APA’s Office of Minority Affairs Tour, which attracted more than 200 participants, and organized faith-based outreach every Sunday of the month, sending members to visit 20 churches to speak about mental health and available support. Finally, at the end of the month, as a special tribute to its cofounder, NAMI Urban Los Angeles organized a mental health fair and candlelight vigil.

_{Back to top}

Join NAMI today!