The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) recently announced that is has launched “Engagement: A New Standard for Mental Health Care,” which is the latest report seeking to help people with mental health conditions as well as their families.
NAMI is dedicated to helping people with mental health conditions. The organization’s leaders are concerned that most of the people with these conditions seek help, but the U.S. system of mental health care is flawed. Unfortunately, many of these people drop out of the system, with 70 percent leaving the program after their first or second visit.
The initial moments in which patient and service provider interact offer the tone as well as course of the patient’s treatment. This first impression can help the patient begin recovering and living fully, or it can make the patient feel hopeless, uncertain and unwilling to pursue further services.
These first impressions are also important for how the patient interacts with his or her community. When people with mental illness are stereotyped as weak, scary or incapable of caring for themselves, they may not tell their community about their health concerns -- and they may not look for professional help.
NAMI seeks to change these tragic stories by helping patients find the help to recovery that they need.
