NAMI National Convention and AOT Letter to the Editor

I returned from the NAMI National Convention yesterday and was reflecting on the many workshops I attended and the connections I was able to make in order to gain further information about the two advocacy efforts I spoke about as one of the presenters at a workshop on advocacy, assertive community treatment (ACT) and assisted outpatient treatment (AOT).

I learned from a phone message from my brother that a letter to the editor that I had written a couple of weeks ago was published in the Bucks County Courier Times on Monday, June 16, "New law would ensure that the mentally ill get needed Help" (I hadn't chosen that title). I was glad to see that the information regarding our advocacy efforts for SB 226 appeared in our local paper. Please send any comments you might want to share to this newspaper.

Although I spoke with many people at the convention who were very supportive of both ACT and AOT, I did meet with some who shared their concerns about how AOT laws are implemented. After listening to their comments, I realize that there is still a lot of misunderstanding about issues such as who would be affected by AOT (my answer: a very small minority, less than 1% of the people with a severe mental illness and history of hospitalizations or incarcerations or violence) and that there are still some people who do not believe that lack of insight or anosognosia exists and stands in the way of people seeking treatment on their own (my answer: to read Dr. Xavier Amador's book, I Am Not Sick I Don't Need Help! as well as the briefing paper on the Treatment Advocacy Center's web site which explains how lack of insight impairs someone's ability to seek and remain in treatment.)

It is still my hope that, over time, more understanding about the benefits of AOT for those whose lives are often devastated by lack of treatment will enable more states, including my own, to pass these life-saving laws.