MIAW

Last month’s Capitol Hill symposium on mental illness (see Original article: story at left) was designed to eradicate stigma and focus on timely issues affecting people with mental illness. About 100 members of Congress, their staffs, and representatives from federal agencies and allied advocacy groups attended.

“It’s amazing that prejudice and discrimination still occur when today’s scientific research is at the cutting edge,” said APA Medical Director James H. Scully Jr., M.D., when he welcomed the attendees.

Symposium moderator Herbert Pardes, M.D., president and CEO of New York Presbyterian Hospital System and a former APA president, noted there has been heightened awareness of mental illness since the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

Richard Birkel, Ph.D., president of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), stressed the importance of representing the public in an effort to promote diagnosis and treatment. Ramiro Guevara, NAMI’s director of its “In Our Own Voice” Consumer Affairs Team, said that recovery from mental illness is possible and that reducing stigma is critical.

Members of Congress, including Reps. Phil Gingrey, M.D. (R-Ga.), Rush Holt (D-N.J.), Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), and Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), praised cosponsors APA and NAMI and the speakers for raising awareness and helping to eliminate the stigma of mental illness. ▪