65.0°

Twenty percent of families across the country are directly affected in some way by mental illness, said National Alliance on Mental Illness-Juneau Executive Director Aaron Hozid.

A rally is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. today on the steps of the Alaska State Capitol in honor of Mental Health Awareness Week. A representative is expected to be on hand to read a proclamation by Gov. Sarah Palin identifying Oct. 5 through 11 as Mental Health Awareness Week in Alaska. The theme this year is "Building Community, Taking Action."

"It's just a nice way of bringing folks together in terms of that kind of support of mental illness," Hozid said. "Mental illness strikes one in five families and obviously it goes across political boundaries and so forth."

NAMI, a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that focuses on education, support and advocacy, has been conducting a number of events throughout the week in concert with numerous other agencies to help bring attention to the issue. Hozid said one of the hopes is to lessen the stigma associated with mental illness.

"I think that is one of the largest issues because the stigma is so intense many people who have mental illnesses are sometimes very afraid or hesitant to share that publicly," he said. "It prevents people from getting treatment because it's frightening."

If people with mental illnesses go untreated it can have "catastrophic results" for families and individuals, Hozid said.

Pamela Watts, the administrator of Juneau Alliance for Mental Health, Inc., said it is important for people to know that there are services available for families and individuals in need.

"Services are available in our community, even if there are some waiting periods in some cases for non-emergency mental health problems," she said. "We want to make sure that people who have mental health problems do have access to services and that they know how to reach them."

There are a variety of resources, Watts said, including JAMHI, NAMI Juneau, the Alaska Mental Health Board, Juneau Youth Services, and more.

Watts said it is important to show support for the issue at a time when there is a lot of financial uncertainty in the country.

"We serve on average a little over 300 active clients at any given point in time," she said.

"Our concern is that access to mental health services continue to be maintained."

Hozid said there is a variety of illnesses that fall under the mental health umbrella, with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression being three of the most common. Substance abuse must also be taken into account when discussing mental health awareness, he said.

"I think the high level of substance abuse, which is very high in Alaska, that exacerbates the situation considerably because then you have a situation of dual diagnosis or the use of substances in the terms of self-medication," Hozid said.

The good news is that there continue to be significant advancements in the mental health field, he said.

"It is an illness and it is treatable, and we're learning more how to treat it increasingly more effectively," Hozid said. "And there are support programs for individual with mental illness and for families."

• Contact reporter Eric Morrison at 523-2269 or eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.