Where's NAMI?
Addressing the Lack of Mental Health Services on College Campuses
by Tom Kranidas, PhD

As members of the NAMI community, it's important for us to recognize that there are very few of our chapters on American campuses. There are some, of course: Jim Monti, a college student, discusses in the August 2005 edition of NAMI Connection his founding of a chapter at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. NAMI National, meanwhile, now has an office for the development of campus chapters under the direction of Renata Ponichtera. But the total of these efforts is not yet enough to fully reach such a vulnerable population. It is important to understand this and to encourage a greater assimilation of students with mental illness into campus society.

I assume that such assimilation is possible, given the appropriate acceptance by the campus community of the social and intellectual realities of mental illness. Great institutions work hard to provide a fostering environment for many different kinds of students, yet too many have ignored or marginalized the needs of those with mental illness. Is this because the tradition of rational inquiry finds itself challenged by the sheer fact of illness of the brain? The academic tradition in the United States has steadily progressed toward tolerance of diversity and recognition of the value of conflicting opinions and propositions. Recent restructurings of curricula, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, demonstrate the academy's acceptance of a broader, more diverse social and cultural history. "Politically correct" is often a term of contempt for trendy theorizing or posturing, but it does represent the acceptance of social and cultural diversity.

Sadly, that definition still excludes the mentally ill, especially on college campuses. I know of no NAMI chapters on any of the hundreds of campuses in New York State, though there are serious efforts by schools such as NYU, Columbia and Stony Brook to address mental health issues. There is a clear need, then, for NAMI to reach the college and university populations. Many of our consumer members are in college programs, both graduate and undergraduate. Many are adjusting to college life and to the attendant stresses of advanced intellectual disciplines. But the isolation and fear of stigma persist. The support of a NAMI group on campus would be crucial to the well-being of those consumers who have rebuilt their lives to the point where they may continue their education. In addition, NAMIs on campus would help instruct the faculty and student body on the problems of the illness, the realities of recovery and the insidious effects of stigma.

Freshman orientation would be a good place for NAMI to present its positions on stigma, acceptance and recovery. Faculty who are themselves consumers or family members could serve as models of understanding and of hope in recovery. The students, meanwhile, would benefit from such enlightenment and would serve to further that enlightenment when they graduate and venture into their chosen professions. The campuses of the nation should be one of the main sources from which the hopes of understanding and recovery could spread. And NAMI should be one of the agents of that enlightenment.

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