Social Policy/Legislation

What does it feel like to be inside the mind of someone who is mentally ill? And what does it feel like, to loving and caring family members of someone with mental illness, when there are little or no resources to help? What went wrong? How did it happen? Could we have done anything differently? Who will help us? What will become of these mentally ill who may be our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters, our sons and our daughters? Who will understand? Who will judge? What will happen when we die and there is no one left to care for our loved one? And why is mental illness not treated with the same respect and urgency as cancer or heart disease? Who do some people think that those with severe and persistent mental illness can control the frequency of when their illness comes and goes, any more than patients with recurring cancer or recurring heart disease can control their illnesses? Why is there a stigma attached to mental illness when there is not one to most other medically diagnosed conditions? And why do we have to compete with our competent and trusted colleagues in the helping professions for treatment dollars that should be afforded to all of our needy clients?

Since the inception of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (otherwise known as NAMI), the New Hampshire Chapter of NAMI has worked diligently to fulfill its mission – to assure that all people with mental illness receive the services they need so as to enable them to live and work in community settings of their choosing. In support of this mission, NAMI NH has enjoyed a collaborative working relationship with the Division of Behavioral Health, the community mental health centers and the peer support and consumer agencies within the state of New Hampshire.

NAMI NH strives to insure that families of the mentally ill are provided with services to better address, deal with and combat these devastating illnesses and the stigma associated with them. NAMI’s role has been to not only educate families and advocate for comprehensive and community based services and support systems for persons with mental illness, but also to advocate for early intervention, screening and recovery programs. And although we now know that - with effective and timely treatment - people with severe mental illness can recover, there are still times when people relapse, and that is precisely when NAMI’s services are most crucial.

This fiscal year, state funding for NAMI has been eliminated. Fifty seven percent (57%) of NAMI’s operating budget has been lost. Despite the fact that evidence demonstrates that informed, educated and supported families add value to the treatment outcomes of those struggling with mental illness, the state severed its obligation - (as reflected in RSA 126 – P, a law, effective August 28, 2001, which established family mutual support services) – to provide information, education and supportive services to the mentally ill and their families when it severed its contract with NAMI NH, the only statewide mental health and family support organization for adults and children.

Mental illness knows no bounds. It is nonpartisan. It is not age or gender specific. It has no class distinction. It knows all races and religions. Republicans and Democrats are equally afflicted. It is old and it is young. It is male and it is female. It happens to the rich, to the poor and to everyone in between. It lives in people who hope and it lives in people who have no hope.

We must not sit idly by while treatment for mental illness takes a back seat. We must support and advocate for those who are mentally ill. We must think of our citizens with mental illness as our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters, our sons and our daughters - because they are. We must not silence their voices, but rather speak for them when they are temporarily unable to speak for themselves.

We, the New Hampshire Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NH – NASW), are proud to support our friends and colleagues at NAMI NH. They are competent, caring and responsible. They are intricately woven into the fabric of the lives of the mentally ill population in New Hampshire and they are an integral part of the solution to this most devastating illness.
We are hopeful that our state leaders and legislators will comprehensively address the seriousness of this nonpartisan matter and restore funding to NAMI NH – a most capable and respected organization and one that is such an integral part of New Hampshire’s mental health care system. In doing so, they will restore dignity to those individuals and families whose lives are forever impacted by mental illness.

Respectfully submitted,

Karen N. Bianco, LICSW
Gilford, NH
President, NH Chapter, NASW