Mental Illness Awareness Week, October 2-8

This crossed my screen and I wanted to pass it on

 Written by Betsy Jay, Chaplin Bassett Medical Center. Just a reminder to all of us who struggle with food issues.

Next week is Mental Illness Awareness Week. Established in 1990 by Congress, the goal of the week is to end the stigma associated with mental illness and to seek better understanding as well as access to diagnosis and treatment. As the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) states, "Mental illnesses are serious medical illnesses. They cannot be overcome through "will power" and are not related to a person's "character" or intelligence. Mental illness falls along a continuum of severity. Even though mental illness is widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion-about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 Americans-who live with a serious mental illness." The statistics for mental illness in the United States are sobering: 

One in ten children has a serious mental illness 

Less than one-third of adults and one-half of children who have mental health needs receive treatment in any one year 

One of every five community hospital stays involves either a primary or secondary diagnosis of mental illness 

Every 15.8 minutes, a life is lost to suicide. The suicide rate for older adults is fifty percent higher than the national average (statistics fromwww.MentalHealthMinistries.net) 

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that one in four adults or approximately 57.7 million Americans-experience a mental health disorder in a given year. 

The U.S. Surgeon General reports that 10 percent of children and adolescents in the United States suffer from serious emotional and mental disorders that cause significant functional impairment in their day-to-day lives at home, in school and with peers. 

The World Health Organization has reported that four of the 10 leading causes of disability in the US and other developed countries are mental disorders. By 2020, Major Depressive illness will be the leading cause of disability in the world for women and children. (statistics from www.nami.org)

Tuesday is the National Day of Prayer for Mental illness Awareness, Recovery and Understanding. On that day, consider lighting a candle of healing "that troubled minds and hearts, broken lives and relationships might be healed." Light a candle of understanding "that the darkness of stigma, labels, exclusion and marginalization might be dispelled." Light a candle of hope "for better treatment, for steadier recovery, for greater opportunity to work and serve." (Carole J. Wills). 

 THANKS for posting this, I will post around as well for awareness.