June Calendar For A Cause- NAMI

The National Alliance on Mental Health Illness here in Southwest Missouri is a local organization that has been in the Southwest Missouri region for over three decades, as they launched in 1982. Their mission is to improve the lives of people affected by a mental illness diagnosis, including providing needed programs, information, services, support groups and referrals.  They have around 30 support groups they provide, along with peer counseling, a mental health library, warm line, suicide prevention, and speakers, all of which are free!

We chose to help raise awareness about this organization for the month of June.  Every Friday we posted on social media about NAMI.  It included everything from facts about the organization to upcoming events and statistics about mental health illness.  While any bit of information is important when it comes to being aware of mental health illness, here are some facts that really stuck out to us:

Awareness is most important, because on average, most people don’t seek help until ten years after symptoms start to show up.
One in five adults are affected by mental health in a given year.
50% of mental health disorders emerge by the age of 14, and 75% by the age of 24.
Words like wacko, nutcase, schitzo, psycho, and lunatic are all commonly used words that are extremely hurtful to those who are diagnosed with a mental health condition. We can help by not describing those affected with those terms, and by cutting them  out of our vocabulary completely!
NAMI focuses not only on those who are individually diagnosed with a mental disorder, but they also strive to help those who are parents, caregivers, and others directly inline with those who are diagnosed.

If you or someone you care about has a mental illness, they are there to help!

We were honored to help get the conversation started about mental health illness.