Mental illness brought into the spotlight

NAMI  educates the public about ‘taboo’ subject

As a co-founder of the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), Nancy Carter is fighting to bring mental illness front and center among African Americans.

“It’s been an uphill fight because mental illness is still a ‘taboo’ subject in the Black community,” said Carter. “For some reason, it’s challenging for African Americans to deal with a mentally ill diagnosis.”

Like many members of NAMI, Carter became aware of the lack of help for the mentally ill after a family member, who suffered from a bipolar disorder, got into legal trouble.

“My family member suffered a mental breakdown and landed in jail in Las Vegas,” recalled Carter. At the time, I didn’t know where to go for advice to get him help. I called family members for advice and they said, ‘You live in Hollywood. He’s probably on drugs.”

Carter persevered and finally was able to get her family member released from jail. “He was looking at four felony counts. But through the power of prayer, faith and good attorneys, we came out on the other side.”

After realizing that there was a need to provide more immediate help for the mentally ill, Carter joined several other women and formed NAMI several years ago.

They discovered that a number of the mentally ill had had experiences with the criminal justice system. “There’s a correlation between mental illness, substance abuse and imprisonment,” said Carter, who said that mental illness usually strikes people in their late teens and early 20s.

Because they are mentally ill, Carter said that people who suffer from mental illness often exhibit erratic behavior which may land them in jail.

To combat the problem and to provide education on the mentally ill and incarceration, NAMI  formed a criminal justice group. “We wanted to standardize what a person should do if a family member is arrested,” said Carter.

The group performs outreach by holding panel discussions with members of law enforcement. “We found that sheriffs and police have limited experience with mental illness. We visit the jails and tell them about the different types of mental illnesses and walk them through what they should do if they suspect they are interacting with a mentally ill person.”

Carter also discovered that 45% of inmates usually have mental health and substance abuse issues and that many are people of color.

“I’ve visited jails and I’m appalled that the inmates are mostly African American and Latino women. It was staggering to me,” she said.

While the United States lags behind treatment for the mentally ill, the NAMI co-founder discovered mental illness is handled with more compassion in other countries. “I visited Senegal and I asked them, ‘Do you put your mentally ill in jail?’ and they said, ‘No–they’re sick. We take them to the hospital.”

Carter hopes that efforts by NAMI and other outreach groups will help to attract more awareness around the issue of mental illness. “If we are going to cure this disparity, it is really important that everybody works together,” Carter pointed out. “We need family members, legislators, and compassionate people who will say, ‘This is wrong.’ It’s the only way that we will change attitudes about mental illness.”