Executive Director’s Report: October Is Disability Employment Awareness Month
July 6, 2020July 1, 2020
Let’s celebrate the increase in employing people living with mental illness!!
People living with a mental illness can work. The common belief that people with mental illness cannot work, is quite frankly a MYTH! Stigma is based on false information. Stigma leaves some people believing that people with mental health challenges are not motivated, ambitious, intelligent or capable. Sadly, these misconceptions combined with a lack of support keeps many people from working.
As a society,
more » Read MoreNAMI SWI COVID-19 Update
April 1, 2020
Dear NAMI Southwestern Illinois Friends:
Hello Everyone. Are you getting “cabin fever? I sure am. In adjusting to working at home, I have found there are positives and negatives to doing so. I’m sure you are having the same experience. Well NAMI SWI is here to offer support during this time of uncertainty.
We continue to answer calls on our Help Line. If you need referral information, or just need to talk to a “warm voice” during this time,
more » Read MoreAre Children’s Mental Health Services Falling Short During COVID-19?
June 24, 2020
By Natalie Krebs
Illinois Newsroom
https://illinoisnewsroom.org/are-childrens-mental-health-services-falling-short-during-covid-19/
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on children’s mental health across the country. Advocates are trying to address the problem, but resources can be limited, and in Iowa, plans for a statewide mental health system for children have run into problems.
At Blank Children’s Hospital, it’s not hard to see the impact of COVID-19.
“We’re seeing a lot more anxiety,
more » Read MoreCoronavirus Crisis Disrupts Treatment for Another Epidemic: Addiction
July 6, 2020
By Giles Bruce
Kaiser Health News
The Mighty
https://themighty.com/2020/07/covid-19-impact-addiction-treatment/
Shawn Hayes was thankful to be holed up at a city-run hotel for people with COVID-19.
The 20-year-old wasn’t in jail. He wasn’t on the streets chasing drugs. Methadone to treat his opioid addiction was delivered to his door.
Hayes was staying at the hotel because of a coronavirus outbreak at the 270-bed Kirkbride Center addiction treatment center in Philadelphia,
more » Read MoreDiscrimination and Racism in the History of Mental Health Care
July 6, 2020
By Kylie M. Smith, Ph.D.
NAMI
https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/July-2020/Discrimination-and-Racism-in-the-History-of-Mental-Health-Care
People with mental illness have always been discriminated against. They have been denied full participation in society and labeled as dangerous and criminal. Many have been locked in institutions that acted more like prisons designed to punish than hospitals designed to treat.
In the 1960s, a series of federal legislation and court cases tried to end this discrimination. In the process,
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