NAMI North Carolina Affiliate Tool Kit | Support, Education & Advocacy

As the blades of grass in our logo symbolize, NAMI is a grassroots organization providing support, education and advocacy for people with serious mental illnesses and their families and friends.

NAMIfocuses its efforts on serious mental illnesses caused by brain disorders that can affect the ability to think, feel and relate to other people and the environment. For adults, serious mental illnesses include schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder (manic depression), obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder and other brain disorders. For children and adolescents, serious mental illnesses include those experienced by adults as well as attention deficit disorder, autism, pervasive developmental disorder and Tourette’s syndrome.

Membership consists primarily of family members and friends of people who have mental illness, mental health care consumers, friends and mental health care professionals. Our support comes from member donations, corporate and other philanthropic grants and state grants.

With an estimated 20 percent of families affected by mental illness, our organization’s membership represents only a small fraction of those who could benefit from our services and add their voices to ours. As a leader of your affiliate, your can nourish our grassroots by extending our support, education and advocacy to more of these families in your community.

A Brief History of Our Organization

In April 1979, six independent support groups for parents of adults with severe and persistent mental illnesses from around the country joined forces in Madison, Wisconsin, to hold the first conference of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Attendance for this historic meeting was 284.

As NAMI has evolved, interest and membership has extended beyond parents to include spouses, siblings, children and friends of people with mental illness as well as a number of mental health care professionals. Most recently, a growing number of mental health care consumers have become active members of NAMI. NAMI currently has more than 200,000 members in 1,200 affiliates across the country.

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Insert Your State Affiliate History Here

Sample text from NAMI North Carolina:

Like our national counterpart, NAMI North Carolina began when several independent support groups from around the state united to form a larger organization. In March 1984, our organization—founded as the North Carolina Alliance for the Mentally Ill—held its first statewide conference in Greensboro for more than 100 attendees.

In 1986, we hired our first executive director, John Baggett. Beth Melcher has been our executive director since 1994. NAMI North Carolina now has approximately 1,400 members, most of whom are involved in one of 30 local affiliates serving 35 North Carolina counties. We recently purchased new office space in Raleigh for our staff of nine full- and part-time employees.

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What We Do

From the time the first symptoms of severe and persistent mental illness appear, through diagnosis, treatment and daily coping, families need a great deal of help and support.

• They need to realize they are not alone—that there are families in their own communities who understand and want to help them meet the challenges they face.
• They need to learn about the disease affecting their family member and about the resources available for treatment, housing and financial aid.
• As they experience firsthand the prejudices and unfair discrimination against people with brain disorders, they need opportunities to advocate for change.

According to its mission statement, our national organization “is dedicated to the eradication of mental illness and to the improvement of the quality of life of those whose lives are affected by these diseases.”

To accomplish these goals our state and local affiliates support, educate and advocate for people and families coping with severe and persistent mental illnesses.

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Insert Your State Affiliate Mission Statement Here

Sample Text from NAMI North Carolina:

NAMI North Carolina—Why We’re Here

To promote the quality of care, rights and interests of mentally ill citizens, particularly of those who cannot speak for themselves, and to advocate such policies at the local, state and national levels to ensure accomplishment of these objectives.

The active promotion of a high quality no‑eject continuum of care from state hospitals through various community facilities and support programs for persons who have prolonged mental illness.

The active promotion of housing with varying degrees of supervision for individuals suffering from mental illness.

The promotion of job training and low stress employment—voluntary or paid—to help the mentally disabled person become as self‑sufficient as possible and to promote his or her self esteem.

To support and advocate for research into the causes, alleviation, and eradication of mental illness.

To develop an enlightened and more sympathetic public understanding of the problems of those afflicted with mental illness and increase awareness of the public responsibilities in dealing with these problems.

To monitor existing health care facilities, staff, and programming for adequacy and accountability, and to influence the professional and the continuing education of mental health service providers.

To improve communication and cooperation between mental health agencies and the families of mentally ill citizens.

To encourage and aid in the formation of affiliate groups and growth of membership throughout the State of North Carolina.

To facilitate support and sharing activities for affiliates and their members.

To inform affiliates and their members of relevant information on research findings.

To serve as an information, collection, and dissemination center for affiliated organizations within the State of North Carolina.

To solicit, receive, and contribute funds for the above‑stated objectives. From Article I, NAMI North Carolina bylaws. A complete copy of our bylaws is available on request as a supplement to your tool kit.