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Foundation Goals
To educate the public about Depressive Illness, its consequences and its treatability.
To provide needed information to physicians and other professionals.
To provide needed information and referrals to all who make requests.
To encourage additional professionals to enter the field.
To help translate public awareness into sharply focused programs of research, education, and treatment innovation.
Foundation Background
The National Foundation For Depressive Illness (NAFDI) was established in 1983 to provide public and professional information about
Affective Disorders, the availability of treatment, and the urgent need for further
research. The Foundation is committed to an extensive, ongoing public information
campaign addressed to this pervasive, costly, and hidden national emergency.
Ongoing activities include:
- The education of business leaders about the costs of undiagnosed
Depressive Illness in the workplace, including higher expenditures for
medical insurance and the loss of productivity due to disfunction and
absenteeism.
- Sponsoring press briefings with public figures, such as Senators Edward
Kennedy, Orrin Hatch, and Terry Sanford, as well as Dr. Joyce Brothers, to
generate awareness about NAFDI.
- Briefing health writers at Mature Market Seminars and other forums on
Depression and the Elderly; providing speakers and materials for workshops,
symposia, and seminars in the mental health community.
- Providing information about the symptoms of Depressive Illness through a
national "800" number, and follow up information and medical referrals for
those who request them,
- Working with the news media ("20/20," "The Mind Series," Time
Magazine, etc.) to increase public awareness and to insure the accuracy of
information presented.
What is needed, and what the Foundation plans for the future, is a
campaign of scope and magnitude comparable to those aimed at
cancer and heart disease.
The task of the Foundation is especially difficult because typical public
attitudes toward Depression and other Affective Disorders hold the individual
responsible for his or her own illness. Indeed, most depressed people hold
themselves responsible -- a wrong attitude likely to accelerate the depression.
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