Approaching the Business Community

Approaching the Business Community

"I saw what it did to my creativity and productivity, even though I was working for a company that paid 100 percent of my son’s costs." Tom Hamilton, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of the EEX Corporation of Texas and parent of a child with schizophrenia. Mental Illness and the Workplace (1999).

Although poorly recognized and seldom acknowledged, mental illness is a "business problem" because it is so widespread. Research indicates that as many as one in every four families is touched by mental illness to some degree. In North Carolina, approximately 328,000 adults and about 59,000 children aged 9-17 are estimated to have a serious mental illness(2). This means that a significant number of every business’ employees are facing this problem. Some employees have illnesses themselves. Others are dealing with mental illness in a spouse, child, sibling, or parent. In addition to very real suffering, the illnesses cost businesses in absenteeism, down time, and lost productivity(3).

The programs of NAMI North Carolina can be a "business solution." We have begun to make ourselves known to the business community. Most recently we have established connections to employee assistance programs ("EAPs"). These are services which companies offer their employees who may be grappling with personal problems that are interfering with their work – substance abuse, marital problems, mental illnesses, financial difficulties, etc. Our Executive Director initiated a connection to the N.C. Association of Employee Assistance Programs and offered a workshop ("Your Nearby NAMI: A Resource for Employees and Families") at an Association meeting in December, 2000. An article appeared in the Association’s newsletter, The Liner, in February 2001, and NAMI North Carolina exhibited at the Association’s annual convention in Charlotte in March, 2001.

To gain assistance in marketing NAMI North Carolina to the business community, we have proposed that a marketing program, "NAMI North Carolina and Your Business," be a project of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program. If approved, this will mean that a leadership team of Chamber members will work with our Board of Directors and staff on ways to help business leaders learn about NAMI and what we offer.

Your support is needed for this promising effort. Businesses need to understand that mental illnesses – just like other illnesses – strike their employees and their families. The appropriate response is not denial. The appropriate response is to help, and to enlist NAMI North Carolina as a resource.

What your gift could pay for:
Brochure development and printing	$ 1,000
EAP Association Membership and Exhibit Costs	1,000
Series of ads in major business journals	2,500

^{2) These figures
are derived from the epidemiological studies summarized in the 1999 Mental
Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, applied to 2000 Census data on
North Carolina’s population.

3) Data on the costs of mental illness to employers in this country were
presented at a December 1999 conference, Mental Illness and the Workplace. Among
the statistics:

The overall annual cost of mental illness exceed $150 billion for
treatment, social services, disability programs, lost productivity, and
premature mortality.
Lost productivity due to depression alone costs employers an average of
$182 to $395 per worker per month, or 45 percent to 98 percent of treatment
costs.

In the private sector, mental illness accounts for 9 percent of long-term
disability claims and 13 percent of costs}