NAMI News

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), the nation's largest organization dedicated to improving life for people with severe mental illnesses and their families, today announced a landmark Global Partnership Initiative (GPI) pairing four NAMI state organizations with similar advocacy groups on three continents-in Brazil, Japan, South Africa and Taiwan.

Max Schneier, J.D., 85, a founding member of NAMI, died this week at his home in Florida after a brief illness. Mr. Schneier was well-known nationally and internationally as a leading advocate for persons with mental illnesses. 

During NAMI's annual convention in Cincinnati, the movie "A Beautiful Mind" will receive perhaps the highest honor of all: a special award from people who themselves have struggled with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, for the year's "Greatest Contribution to Public Understanding of Mental Illness."

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) today announced its annual Outstanding Media Awards for fair, accurate, and sensitive reporting editorials and features about mental illness that have contributed to public support for improvement of the nation's mental health care system.

Funeral services will be held Friday, June 14th at 2:00 p.m. at St. John's Episcopal Church, 3240 "O" Street in Georgetown in Washington, D.C. for Richard Jed Wyatt, former chief of NIMH's Neuropsychiatry Branch and a long-time friend of NAMI, who died June 7th, after a long illness.

On Thursday, June 6 more than 2,000 supporters of mental health parity gathered in Washington, D.C. to urge Congress to act to end insurance discrimination against individuals with mental illness and their families.

There are literally tens of thousands of people with mental illnesses in this country who lead highly productive lives and many more who could if they had access to treatment through adequate insurance coverage.

 NAMI members will arrive by the busload Thursday, June 6th from New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other states for a noon rally on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. The date is a coincidence, but for about 1000 people with mental illnesses, family members and friends, the event indeed is a bit like D-Day.

In 1997, the book struck a nerve with hundreds of thousands of Americans and led to Robert Neugeboren's deinstitutionalization. Five years later, as President George W. Bush launches a Commission on Mental Health to recommend changes in the nation's treatment system for mental illness, Imagining Robert: My Brother, Madness and Survival, is making rounds again as a one-hour documentary.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) will honor 46 psychiatrists with its 2002 NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrists Awards during the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Philadelphia, PA on May 22, 2002.