Dear Supporters, Please read, share and tweet this appeal from Deborah Geesling, Co-Founder of MOMI (Mothers of Mentally Ill) of AZ. MOMI of AZ advocates at the state and Federal level for appropriate treatment, support and housing for the 4%. Thank you, Teresa "As a mother of someone with a serious mental illness I am very grateful for the history and work that NAMI (The National Alliance on Mental Illness) has achieved. The 12 week Family to Family course was invaluable to our family and I deeply respect many people who work tirelessly in my state with NAMI to assist individuals and families through ongoing support and education. I am also grateful for NAMI’s endorsement of certain aspects of The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act even when this landmark legislation did not have its Genesis in their organization. In the past few years I’ve had to become the sort of mother and advocate that I have never been comfortable with. I’ve had to speak up publicly on behalf of my child in order to save my child. Because I am the proverbial squeaky wheel, my child has been able to obtain the services and supports needed in order to not only survive, but begin to thrive. We fortunately live in a state that offers Assisted Outpatient Treatment for individuals who are persistently and acutely disabled. Most of my friends do not live in an area with AOT and even many who do live in my state still suffer with unbearable burdens. Their loved ones are incarcerated, homeless, live in bug and rodent infested housing or have died, and this utterly breaks my heart. For what other illness is this acceptable in America? This has become a National disgrace, a shameful blight in our history. We have the chance to take the necessary steps to change this trajectory, but will we? I believe NAMI is well intentioned in their advocacy, I cannot speak to motives. Yet, I earnestly implore the leaders at the National level to consider perhaps what may be blind spots in their focus. Our nation seems to have allowed systematic creep, Utilitarian in nature, that appears to focus on the greater good for greatest amount of people. Resourcing tax dollars based on the average need of the whole mental health system and watered down outcome measures may make good sense in an administrative planning meeting, but it doesn’t translate well to the most significantly disabled in real life. In particular, the individuals who lack insight, Anosognosia (a symptom of schizophrenia, page 304 DSM IV-R book) and require a greater degree of resources and intentional care. These are people whose brains are so significantly impaired due to disease that we must do the very hard work of assisting and restoring them to their best possible baseline because they cannot do it themselves. We dare not continue to minimize the need. I once met a man at my child’s clinic who was so disabled from serious mental illness that he thought I was the Virgin Mary and he fell to his knees and prayed to me. Months later, after the help of Assisted Outpatient Treatment, I saw him again. He was in his right mind and carried out a coherent conversation with me. You cannot tell me that to leave this man in his former state is the compassionate thing to do. In fact, I cannot think of anything so cruel. Life with dignity must be the standard of care, not life in solitary confinement or life being victimized on the streets. I appeal to NAMI to re-examine their course. Mission drift happens the best of us, but it’s time to adjust. We cannot accept anything less, lives depend on it." Deborah Geesling, President P82 Project Restoration, Inc.