The National Alliance On Mental Illness Applauds New Report On Caregiving

The National Alliance
on Mental Illness (NAMI) praises a new report, Caregiving in the U.S.
2009, which offers a revealing portrait of the nearly one-in-three
American adults who serve as a family caregiver.



The study is based on interviews with 1,480 caregivers chosen at
random and offers a national profile of people caring for adults, the
elderly and children with special needs. It follows similar studies
conducted in 2004 and 1997, but for the first time, caregivers for
children, as well as those caring for adults over the age of 18, were
surveyed.



The report echoes the findings of NAMI's own depression survey and
schizophrenia survey, which include the perspective of caregivers for
people living with these serious mental illnesses. All these reports
suggest that caregivers face daily stresses that can impact their own
health and other relationships. For example, NAMI's depression
survey, released in November, found that while almost one-half (48
percent) of caregivers for people with depression have been diagnosed
with depression themselves, only about 25 percent were engaged in
treatment at the time of the survey.



"We know from our own studies that caregivers make significant
sacrifices to care for their loved ones living with mental illness,"
said Michael Fitzpatrick, NAMI executive director. "The findings of
this new report will help us anticipate the needs of caregivers so
that we can improve NAMI's education and support programs."



NAMI offers a variety of peer education and support programs,
including those specifically for caregivers.



Family-to-Family is a free, twelve-week course for family caregivers
of individuals with severe mental illnesses. The course is taught by
trained family members and more than 115,000 family members have
graduated from this national program. The course is also available in
Spanish.



NAMI Basics is an education program for parents and other caregivers
of children and adolescents living with mental illnesses. The course
is taught by trained teachers who are the parent or other caregivers
of individuals who developed the symptoms of mental illness prior to
the age of 13 years.



Source
The National Alliance on Mental Illness