<p><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;">The case has stood all along for the failures of America's mental health system. Unfortunately, it now also stands for the inadequacy of our legal system in addressing issues that involve mental illness.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;">Mental illnesses are biological brain disorders, and must be treated equally with disabilities involving any other bodily organ or system. Health insurance plans must not discriminate in amount, duration, or scope between mental illnesses and other diagnoses.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;">People with mental illness are being injured or killed almost weekly through the improper use of restraints. Congress needs to put in place standards and a system to end such abuses, before any more adults or children die.</span></p>
<p>In preparation for the House Committee on Energy & Commerce's mark-up of the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reauthorization bill, and because of recent reports of additional deaths</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;">NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, is pleased to serve as a national partner of the fifth annual Brain Awareness Week, March 13-19, 2000. During Brain Awareness Week, a project of the Dana Alliance for Brain Research, the Alliance will release "Update 2000: Brain Research in the new Millennium," its annual report.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;">The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) has requested an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into Florida's treatment of children with serious brain disorders, following the February 5th death of 12-year-old boy with mental illness at a wilderness camp for juvenile offenders.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;">We applaud the courage of U.S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) in disclosing publicly that he has battled depression since adolescence, takes medication, and regularly sees a psychiatrist.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;">The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) this evening honored members of Congress and the Clinton Administration for their leadership in making the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 a reality.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;">At a briefing today hosted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Laurie Flynn, executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) outlined the most important factors for change in health care for the next decade and discussed key trends in the area of mental health care.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;">New Mexico today became the first state in 2000, and the 29</span><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;">th</span><span style="line-height: 23.1111106872559px;"> overall, to enact into law legislation aimed at ending unfair discrimination and providing more equitable coverage for mental illness in health insurance plans.</span></p>
NAMI HelpLine is available M-F, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. ET. Call 800-950-6264,
text “NAMI” to 62640, or email. In a crisis, call or text 988 (24/7).