NAMI HelpLine

NAMI at National Conferences

Thank you for visiting the National Alliance for Mental Illness! Use the links below to view resources shared at our recent conference booths. If you have any questions about these resources, you can reach NAMI’s Government, Policy & Advocacy team at mhpolicy@nami.org.

NAMI AT NCSL — Links & Resources

NAMI Resources and Programs

  • Find Your Local NAMI: There are more than 650 NAMI State Organizations and Affiliates across the country. Many NAMI affiliates offer an array of free support and education programs. Contact your NAMI Affiliate to find out what types of programs and supports they offer.
  • NAMI HelpLine: The NAMI HelpLine is a free, confidential nationwide service that provides one-on-one emotional support, mental health information and resources needed to tackle tough challenges that you, your family or friends are facing.
  • Community Health Equity Alliance: This initiative prioritizes community-informed solutions that address serious mental illness care at the state and local levels in select geographies, with the aim of improving the trusted delivery and pursuit of equitable mental health care for Black/African Ancestry adults in the United States.

NAMI Policy Resources

NAMI Criminal Justice and Crisis Response Advocacy

  • 988: Reimagining Crisis Response: NAMI’s priority is to reimagine crisis response in our country — ensuring that every person in crisis, and their loved ones, deserves a humane response that connects them to appropriate and timely care.
  • #ReimagineCrisis Response: #ReimagineCrisis is an initiative that brings together a diverse partnership made up of leading organizations committed to reimagining our national response to people experiencing a mental health, suicide, or substance use crisis.

NAMI AT CIT — Links & Resources

NAMI Policy Resources

NAMI Advocacy Resources

  • Take Action: Be a Mental Health Advocate: Your voice makes a difference! Take action on NAMI advocacy campaigns to ensure people get help early, people get the best possible care, and people get diverted from justice system involvement.
  • Share Your Crisis Care Story: Help power NAMI’s advocacy by sharing your mental health crisis story and how your community’s current mental health crisis system helped you — or tell us about challenges you’ve experienced that have hurt you.
  • Support the 988 Lifeline: Tell Congress how much we care about continuing to build and improve 988 and crisis services.

NAMI Criminal Justice and Crisis Response Advocacy

  • 988: Reimagining Crisis Response: NAMI’s priority is to reimagine crisis response in our country — ensuring that every person in crisis, and their loved ones, deserves a humane response that connects them to appropriate and timely care.
  • #ReimagineCrisis Response: #ReimagineCrisis is an initiative that brings together a diverse partnership made up of leading organizations committed to reimagining our national response to people experiencing a mental health, suicide, or substance use crisis.
  • Overlooked: Stories of Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System: This campaign aims to highlight the impact of the criminal justice system on people with mental illness through personal stories from the people who lived this experience.
  • NAMI Sharing Your Story with Law Enforcement: NAMI Sharing Your Story with Law Enforcement (SYSLE) is a presentation program that prepares individuals and family members to share their stories of lived experience with mental illness to a law enforcement audience, such as during Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training, or other events where mental illness and related topics are featured.
  • Correctional Officers De-escalation Education (CODE): A resource to help train officers working in jails and prisons, on how to respond to challenges they face when working with people with mental illness who are incarcerated, including: effective communication, skillful intervention and monitoring guidelines and successful de-escalation strategies. Includes training video and facilitators guide.

NAMI Resources and Programs

  • Find Your Local NAMI: There are more than 650 NAMI State Organizations and Affiliates across the country. Many NAMI affiliates offer an array of free support and education programs. Contact your NAMI Affiliate to find out what types of programs and supports they offer.
  • NAMI HelpLine: The NAMI HelpLine is a free, confidential nationwide service that provides one-on-one emotional support, mental health information and resources needed to tackle tough challenges that you, your family or friends are facing.
  • NAMI Programs: Across the country, thousands of trained NAMI volunteers bring peer-led programs to a wide variety of community settings, from churches to schools to NAMI Affiliates. With the unique understanding of people with lived experience, these programs and support groups provide outstanding free education, skills training and support.
  • NAMI Guides
      • “You Are Not Alone” is a comprehensive guide featuring stories from over 130 people with lived experience. The book covers how to get help, pathways to recovery, the intersection of culture and mental health, and many more important topics to guide any person’s mental health journey.
      • The perfect follow-up to “You Are Not Alone: The NAMI Guide to Navigating Mental Health,” “You Are Not Alone for Parents and Caregivers: The NAMI Guide to Navigating Your Child’s Mental Health” is the resource for every trusted adult helping a child or young adult manage their mental health.
    • Community Health Equity Alliance: This initiative prioritizes community-informed solutions that address serious mental illness care at the state and local levels in select geographies, with the aim of improving the trusted delivery and pursuit of equitable mental health care for Black/African Ancestry adults in the United States.

NAMI AT RISE25 — Links & Resources

NAMI Resources and Programs

  • Find Your Local NAMI: There are more than 650 NAMI State Organizations and Affiliates across the country. Many NAMI affiliates offer an array of free support and education programs. Contact your NAMI Affiliate to find out what types of programs and supports they offer.
  • NAMI HelpLine: The NAMI HelpLine is a free, confidential nationwide service that provides one-on-one emotional support, mental health information and resources needed to tackle tough challenges that you, your family or friends are facing.
  • NAMI Programs: Across the country, thousands of trained NAMI volunteers bring peer-led programs to a wide variety of community settings, from churches to schools to NAMI Affiliates. With the unique understanding of people with lived experience, these programs and support groups provide outstanding free education, skills training and support.
  • NAMI Guides
      • “You Are Not Alone” is a comprehensive guide featuring stories from over 130 people with lived experience. The book covers how to get help, pathways to recovery, the intersection of culture and mental health, and many more important topics to guide any person’s mental health journey.
      • The perfect follow-up to “You Are Not Alone: The NAMI Guide to Navigating Mental Health,” “You Are Not Alone for Parents and Caregivers: The NAMI Guide to Navigating Your Child’s Mental Health” is the resource for every trusted adult helping a child or young adult manage their mental health.
    • Community Health Equity Alliance: This initiative prioritizes community-informed solutions that address serious mental illness care at the state and local levels in select geographies, with the aim of improving the trusted delivery and pursuit of equitable mental health care for Black/African Ancestry adults in the United States.

NAMI Policy Resources

NAMI Advocacy Resources

  • Protect Medicaid. Protect Mental Health campaign: Medicaid is a public health insurance program that covered about 72 million people, as of March 2025, including many people with mental health conditions, as well as pregnant women, children, people with disabilities, working families, and veterans. In July 2025, Congress passed significant cuts to Medicaid that will impact millions of Americans. Learn more about these cuts and how Medicaid impacts people with mental health conditions.
  • Take Action: Be a Mental Health Advocate: Your voice makes a difference! Take action on NAMI advocacy campaigns to ensure people get help early, people get the best possible care, and people get diverted from justice system involvement.

NAMI Criminal Justice and Crisis Response Advocacy

  • 988: Reimagining Crisis Response: NAMI’s priority is to reimagine crisis response in our country — ensuring that every person in crisis, and their loved ones, deserves a humane response that connects them to appropriate and timely care.
  • #ReimagineCrisis Response: #ReimagineCrisis is an initiative that brings together a diverse partnership made up of leading organizations committed to reimagining our national response to people experiencing a mental health, suicide, or substance use crisis.
  • Overlooked: Stories of Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System: This campaign aims to highlight the impact of the criminal justice system on people with mental illness through personal stories from the people who lived this experience.
  • NAMI Sharing Your Story with Law Enforcement: NAMI Sharing Your Story with Law Enforcement (SYSLE) is a presentation program that prepares individuals and family members to share their stories of lived experience with mental illness to a law enforcement audience, such as during Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training, or other events where mental illness and related topics are featured.

Know the warning signs of mental illness

Learn more about common mental health conditions

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).