<p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">NAMI today announced the appointment of William Emmet as its chief operating officer. Emmet will join the organization on June 1, 1998, when he leaves his post as executive director of NAMI-Rhode Island and resigns as a member of NAMI’s board of directors.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) today called for immediate and full passage of S2165, which would amend the Massachusetts insurance laws so that mental illness is covered in the same way as other biologically based diseases.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">The Hay Group study (Health Care Plan Design and Cost Trends: 1988 through 1997) is the first to look at what has happened to behavioral health care compared to general health care during the tumultuous period of the last ten years.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems (NAPHS), and the Association of Behavioral Group Practices (ABGP) will announce the findings of a landmark study demonstrating significant erosion of benefits for mental and addictive disorders over the past decade.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">The Tennessee House and Senate rectified a great wrong on April 23 by unanimously passing HB 3177 which mandates that health insurance plans provide coverage for mental illnesses at the same level as physical illnesses.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) today blasted Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating (R) for his veto of SB 1059, which would have required health insurance and health benefit plans for 50 or more employees to include coverage for severe mental illnesses equal to that of physical illnesses.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Statement by Laurie M. Flynn, Executive Director, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">NAMI applauds Surgeon General David Satcher for recognizing the epidemic proportions suicide has reached and for announcing plans to develop the National Suicide Prevention Strategy our nation so desperately needs. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill is urging the Illinois senate to help bring an end to discrimination against people with mental illness and pass House Bill 111 currently being held in the Senate Rules Committee. </span></p>
<p> </p> <p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) today praised Georgia Governor, Zell Miller and state lawmakers for standing up to stigma and ending insurance discrimination against people with severe mental illnesses.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">The Massachusetts Senate rectified a great wrong on April 2nd by passing S-1877, "An Act Relative to Certain Health Care Benefits."</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).