Open Letter to NAMI Affiliates and State Organizations About Serious Mental Illness

The President of NAMI National, a good man dedicated to our cause, sent a letter to affiliates and state organizations suggesting that if NAMI National were to focus its efforts primarily on helping people with serious mental illness, as many affiliates and states still do–that that would create a smaller tent for NAMI, and make NAMI less effective than the broad-based mental-wellness type organization that it has morphed into.

His letter was sent in light of the fact that four candidates for the NAMI board are running on the “Focus on Serious Mental Illness” ticket. I am one of the four. We were all told not to campaign, but because that letter was sent, I thought it important to clarify for you what we are actually proposing and why we think a clearer focus on the seriously ill is needed. Below is the letter I sent to the President of NAMI addressing these issues. Please feel free to share. Thank you.

DJ Jaffe

Author, Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill

Open PDF