APA and five advocacy organizations have founded the Friends of NIMH coalition in Washington, D.C., to support and promote the work of NIMH. These organizations include the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the American Psychiatric Association, Mental Health America, and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, and the coalition is recruiting additional member organizations.
Many U.S. agencies have "friends" groups that promote the agency’s activities and advocate in support of its budget. Examples are Friends of VA Medical Care and Health Research, CDC Coalition, and Friends of NIDA. The Friends of NIMH will support NIMH’s mission of understanding mental health and identifying how to treat mental illnesses through basic biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research and how to best inform prevention, early intervention, recovery, and cures. The coalition will advance that mission through activities such as developing a funding request to share with Congress and educating policymakers about the work of NIMH through events and briefings.
For more information, contact Pat Kobor.