Making Strides for Mental Health

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the annual Stride for Mental Health Awareness, which takes place on Saturday May 21, is sponsored by the Bucks County, Pa. Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). The goal of Stride is to help people better understand disorders that affect about 42.5 million American adults every year with conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Studies also indicate that approximately 9.3 million adults in the U.S. suffer from “serious mental illness” that interferes with their ability to function effectively on a day-to-day basis.  In an interview with Newsweek magazine, Ronald Kessler, a professor of health care at Harvard University, said that mental illness affects an even higher number of people than these statistics indicate.

He may be right. More hospital beds are occupied by patients with a mental illness than with cancer and heart disease combined. The cost to society for failing to diagnose and treat mental illness is high and it’s growing every year. A study by the American Mental Health Counselors Association holds that as many as four million adults with a mental illness in states that opted not to expand Medicaid will be denied insurance.

Then there is the personal price that people suffering with a mental illness pay. There is no statistic that can quantify human suffering. The price is heartbreaking, as any of the people in my NAMI Family-to-Family group will attest. We are drawn together by a common bond; each of us has a loved one who suffers from a mental illness. And we have learned firsthand that in a highly competitive society, mental illness, unlike medical illness, carries with it a stigma.

As a society we have made tremendous strides in addressing racial, gender and other forms of discrimination.  But while our hearts go out to people suffering with breast or lung cancer, if someone we know in the workplace or school seems a bit off, we respond to them differently, our ability to empathize greatly diminished, as if we are not all members of the same human family.

If you’re not able to participate in a NAMI walk in your area, you can still join us during Mental Health Month by consciously opening your heart to people with a mental illness. You can join us by refraining from using words that are hurtful and help to perpetuate the stigma, words like ‘head case’ and ‘nut job.’  (View a video about one teen’s dream to change the stigma around mental illness.)

There is no cure for mental illness at this time, only recovery and rehabilitation. But recovery and rehabilitation can help many people live productive and happy lives, something all of us want for our loved ones. And research that is currently being conducted holds great promise for more effective treatments for mental illnesses and perhaps one day, a cure.

So “stride” with us, if not literally then in your heart, and help raise awareness of mental health and the need for greater access to care and research, because we are all members of the human family.

NAMI is a grassroots organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americas affected by mental illness. NAMI advocates for access to services, treatment, support, research and building a community of hope for those in need.