Mental Illness Awareness Week

Other organizations throughout the nation will provide their own week of activities and programming for MIAW.  For more information and/or ways to get involved check out the following links: 

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI):  https://www.nami.org/get-involved/awareness-events/mental-illness-awareness-week

Mental Health America (MHA): https://www.mhanational.org/mental-illness-awareness-week

Sunday, October 2 – Saturday, October 8, 2022 

It is estimated that nearly 50 million American adults live with a mental illness with only fifty percent of these individuals seeking and receiving treatment.  The remaining untreated fifty percent site the lack of information, lack of resources, stigma and fear as reasons for not seeking help and support.

In 1990 in recognition of efforts by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to advocate, educate and increase awareness about mental illness, Congress designated the first week of October Mental Illness Awareness Week throughout the country. It has now grown to become an international event.

This year NAMI announced that the theme for the 2022 MIAW is “What I Wish I Had Known.” Here the focus will be on the power of lived experience.  In other words, accounts of individuals with lived experience with mental illness will tell their story in the hopes that they can help someone else overcome their fears and navigate the systems.  Here is the list of day by day themes for the week for NAMI.                

What I Wish I’d Known About…

• Monday Oct. 3: Stigma                    
• Tuesday Oct. 4: Medication [National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery andUnderstanding]
• Wednesday Oct. 5: Therapy
• Thursday Oct. 6: Disclosing [National Depression Screening Day]
• Friday Oct. 7: Caregiving