NAMI DeKalb, Inc.

A nonprofit organization

0% complete

$5,000 Goal

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is

·         The nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization, with a presence in every state, dedicated to improving the lives of people living with serious mental illness and their families.

·         Right here in the community, the NAMI DeKalb affiliate carries out NAMI’s mission and provides support, education, advocacy and public awareness, free of charge.

What we do

·         Run support groups so that people with a mental illness and members of their families have an opportunity to share feelings and concerns, network about resources and information, and give and receive mutual support.

·         Conduct education classes. By educating ourselves and the community at large, we become empowered to dispel the stigma, misinformation, and discrimination that surround serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. They are neurological brain disorders that cannot be prevented or cured but do respond to treatment and support. Plus cause differences in thinking, feeling, mood, and interpersonal relationships.

·         Advocate for changes in public policy that better support people with mental illness and their families.

·         Promote and support research to better understand mental illness and its causes and to improve treatment.

Here’s why we need your help

·         Our efforts only scratch the surface of a huge problem for Georgia.

·         Mental illness affects more people than most other major illnesses.

·         In a one-year period, about one in five Americans can be diagnosed with a mental illness that is serious enough to interfere with their normal, daily functioning.

·         Compared to all diseases, mental illness ranks first in terms of causing disability in the United States.

·         Presenteeism, which is being on the job but not being very productive, and absenteeism cost US businesses about $50 billion annually.

·         There is no measure of the lost promise of people with a mental illness and the emotional cost to their families.

And mental illness is very treatable

·         With treatment, 80% to 90% of people can recover and begin functioning better in their daily activities and in their relationships with others.

·         An employer investment of $500 per year per employee for mental health services can yield over $3,000.

But few seek treatment

·         Just one in five people with mental illness actually receives treatment.

·         Reasons include stigma, because they believe they can handle it without help, because they don’t know they have a mental illness, or because they don’t realize that treatment works.

Read more about us at www.namidekalb.org

Organization Data

Summary

Organization name

NAMI DeKalb, Inc.

Tax id (EIN)

47-2253500

Categories

Community

Address

PO BOX 2180
DECATUR, GA 30031

Phone

313 673 0275

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