[Music]
each year millions of Americans face the
reality of living with a mental health
condition that's why each year during
the first week in October the National
Alliance on Mental Illness joined with
groups across the country to raise
awareness of mental illness yeah they
helped educate and fight the stigma
associated with mental illness and
joining us now to talk more is president
of Nami Roanoke Valley Mary Wilson thank
you so much for coming on thanks for
having me so tell us about Nami Roanoke
Valley and what you do and who you serve
so Namie Amuro death valley is a
nonprofit organization we're a
grassroots organization we've been
around since 1983 so this is 35 years
and our main thing is we support
advocate research and provide any kind
of education we can to family members
and those living with mental illness
yeah and there's like we said there's
such a stigma yes with it there's so
many people who suffer either directly
from it you know personally or with a
family member so let's talk about some
of the statistics regarding mental
health let's start with the adults so
one in five experienced some sort of
mental health condition at some point in
their life but one in 25 Americans will
have them and I do have a mental illness
in their life okay yeah and then
incredible yeah let's talk about the
children so children so children one in
five of ages 13 to 18 1 and 5 of them
will have a serious mental illness so
20% will have some sort of mental health
condition 11 will have some sort of mood
disorder 10 will have some sort of
behavioral conduct disorder in 8% will
also have an anxiety disorder so when
you think about 13 to 18 adolescence
middle school you're behind a lot
there's a lot going on they're trying to
figure out who they are in general and
so then they have this other thing going
on that they don't really know how to
cope with so it can it can be a lot for
them and the family and so our goal is
to help provide resources and support
shoot them in our direction that they
need based on what they're experiencing
let's talk about the impact for a moment
on all of this and yes that's huge it's
it's so huge I mean it can be the
financial impact the family
impact everyone it's not just the
individual it's everyone that's affected
in the family the caregivers miss time
from work the it's just it's so great
school everyone so it's just it's really
can be really difficult and hard to
describe sometimes but we hear some
really great success stories so it's
really good to kind of see a family
through and know that at the end of the
day that we helped provide them some
resources so and so this week is mental
illness Awareness Week
so what's Nami doing so Nami is doing a
couple things this week first on
Wednesday we are part we partnered with
the South County Library to do Mental
Illness 101 starting the conversation so
this has really to focus with students
and parents to start the conversation
about mental illness it is from 6:30 to
7:30 at the South County Library
Wednesday Wednesday night so we are
talking about the statistics we're
talking about suicide and prevention
we're talking a ways to open up a
conversation if you are with a friend
that's saying some weird things might
have some thoughts of suicide here's how
you can ask questions about it we try to
give them some coping skills some ways
to deal with that and ways resources to
go to yeah and you also have been coming
up this Friday yeah so mosaic is our
third annual concert on would Park
Friday night 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. we had
the works and RSP entertainments
providing with DJ flex so it's a piay
shorts distributing and we have many
sponsors so it's $5 at the gates 21 and
up a really excited it's a fundraising
event for Nami so we can build our
programs everything we do in Roanoke is
free to the community and everyone that
participates so it is really we really
try very hard to fundraise yeah well
thank you so much
for you coming on if somebody wants to
find more information about you all
working they go they can go to our
website Nami Roanoke Valley us and they
can email us or call us for information
at any time and we also all of our
website and Facebook page has resources