� The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is preparing to grade each of the 50 states on mental health services and invites the public to help by taking an online survey-and forwarding it to others.
The survey is available here and includes a version in Spanish.
In 2006, NAMI's "Grading the States: A Report on America's Mental Healthcare System for Serious Mental Illnesses" www.nami.org/grades provided the low gear comprehensive judgment in 15 years of publicly-funded mental health services, establishing a benchmark against which succeeding progress could be measured.
The internal average was a D.
The following report card will come out in 2009. Which states improved? Are any states sliding backwards?
The new survey will help answer those questions, identifying strengths and weaknesses from the linear perspective of the people they serve.
Survey results will be summarized and merged into the report, on with other sources of information.
NAMI is request individuals and families affected by serious mental illnesses to take the survey to step "real world experiences."
Anyone age 18 or elder who has been diagnosed with a serious mental illness or who has an adult family member with a diagnosed mental illness tin can take the survey.
Serious mental illnesses include major depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
The survey will remain online until September 30, 2008, and takes close to 15 proceedings to dispatch. Responses are anonymous.
Specific survey questions include whether mental health services in a department of State are light to rule, convenient, low-cost and without waiting lists-as well as whether they are sensitive to cultural backgrounds.
Open-ended questions postulate for the "best thing" and "worst thing" around each department of State system, whether their mental health services emphasize recovery, and what "recovery" means for each individual.
Telesage, Inc., an independent survey technology company, is conducting the mental health services survey in partnership with NAMI.
NAMI is the nation's largest grassroots organisation dedicated to helping individuals and families affected by mental illnesses such as major natural depression, bipolar disorderliness, schizophrenia, anxiousness disorders, delimitation personality disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).
Resources:
http://www.nami.org
http://telesage.com
http://nami.org/mentalhealthservices
http://healthcareforuninsured.org
http://nami.org/schizophreniasurvey
The National Alliance on Mental Illness
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