NAMI
In the early 1970s, small groups of family members, nationwide, began to gather around kitchen tables searching for support and understanding of their mentally ill family members, more often than not, young adult children. The majority of those meeting together were moms blamed by the medical profession that their parenting skills caused their child’s schizophrenia or other mental health disorder.
NAMI was in the beginning and continues to be a volunteer-driven organization.
In the late 1970s, some of these families gathered together in Madison, WI and decided to form state associations. Within the next few years, the state organizations decided to form a national organization named NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. What started as a small group of families gathered around a kitchen table has blossomed into the nation’s leading voice on mental health. Today, we are an alliance of more than 600 local Affiliates and 48 State Organizations who work in your community to raise awareness and provide support and education that was not previously available to those in need.
NAMI Southeast Minnesota History
When founders Joyce and Wayne Schut’s daughter suddenly experienced a serious mental health crisis at 16, they didn’t know where to turn. “Waiting in the ER, we felt so helpless and hopeless – totally traumatized. We felt utterly alone.”
The Schuts didn’t want any other individuals to go through the isolation they had experienced. “What we really needed was someone to advocate for us…guide us…educate us…and connect us with others who had been through what we went through.” Around a kitchen table in Rochester, Joyce, Wayne and another couple founded what would eventually become NAMI Southeast Minnesota.
That was in 1986. In the decades since, the organization has grown from a few individuals to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps thousands. “What a difference it would have made to have NAMI on our side that frightening night so many years ago,” Joyce says.
Today, NAMI Southeast Minnesota helps our neighbors, friends and families in Dodge, Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted and Wabasha counties.
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