The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization, established in 1979 for mental health clients and their families as a self-help organization dedicated to providing support, education and advocacy to anyone affected by persistent biologically based brain disorders or mental illnesses.

There are 220,000 NAMI members nationwide with 1200 affiliates throughout the nation. NAMI-Montgomery County is a chapter of NAMI Ohio joining around 60 other state affiliates. The state coalition represents an important link in efforts to improve the quality of life for those with mental illness by implementing and integrating services and policies determined at the state level.

Mental illnesses are real diseases causing disturbances in feeling, relating or thinking. These disorders do not discriminate, affecting people of all ages, races, cultures and socioeconomic classes. One out of every four families in America has a member who suffers from a serious mental illness. Two out of every 100 young adults will be affected by serious brain diseases between the ages of 18 and 30.

NAMI advocates at the local, state and national level for a system of adequate care and for increased support for research from the federal government and from private sources.