LEXINGTON, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is helping people through Mental Illness Awareness Week by showing support and raising awareness for those struggling with mental health issues one step at a time.
“We’re all here today because we know that it takes the whole community to heal the community,” said Kelly Gunning, Advocacy Director of NAMI Lexington .
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More than 500 community members gathered Saturday for the 20th annual NAMI Walks.
The walk also commemorated Eastern State Hospital’s 200th anniversary. It plays a leading factor in the success of NAMI’s work of giving treatment to people with mental illness.
“Our community is moving in what we call play upstream and starting with earlier intervention and prevention so that people are not as stigmatized when they talk about their mental health. It’s just a type of health,” said Gunning.
Confronting that stigma head-on was Bruce Simpson. “The stigma attached to mental illness and its treatment ruins a lot of lives. I’ve learned that the hard way,” said Bruce Simpson addressing the crowd of advocates.