For Suicide Prevention Awareness Week, we are highlighting a mental health organization in the US that also provides information, resources, and assistance to the Latinx/Hispanic community:
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the largest grassroots mental health organization in the US dedicated to helping Americans with mental illnesses build better lives. NAMI educates communities to ensure that people with mental illness, their families, and educators get the support and information that they need; helps to shape national public policy for people with mental illness and their families and provides leaders with the tools, resources, and skills necessary to save mental health across the country; provides a toll-free helpline that allows staff to respond personally to requests for free information and support; and creates awareness through public events and activities, including Mental Illness Awareness Week in October and NAMIWalks.
For the Latinx/Hispanic mental health community, NAMI provides information in Spanish on mental health in the Latinx/Hispanic community that includes information on why mental health is important, how mental illness affects the Latinx/Hispanic community, information and resources on suicide risk, how to find the right mental health service provider, and more. NAMI also provides information in Spanish on different mental health conditions, including schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder.
NAMI also advocates for “culturally-competent” mental health care that is mental health care provided by professionals who understand the culture and beliefs of their clients and support their mental health in meaningful ways. Learn more about why culturally-competent care is important for Latinx individuals with lived experience in mental health in this NAMI blog post.
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800/273-8255, reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting NAMI to 741-741, or if you or someone you love is in immediate danger, call 911 and notify the operator that you are having a psychiatric emergency and ask for an officer trained in crisis intervention or trained to assist people experiencing a psychiatric emergency.
If you would like more information on mental health and the Latinx/Hispanic community, contact NARIC’s information specialists.
