Achieve Your Full Potential with Noble Peace Foundation

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Advocacy

The goal of our advocacy program is to engage in public policy activities that can improve mental health services for individuals with mental illness and families. This program includes:

1. Raising awareness about mental health to families, communities and the general public.

2. Educate our communities about mental illness and remove the stigma attached to mental illness.

3. Promote access to mental health services available in the community and state.

4. Work in partnership with mental health services network of families, individuals, community-based organizations, service providers and government agencies.

5. Support effective treatment and recovery programs for people with mental illness.

 The research program is an effort to improve the goals of NPF by researching new and innovative ways of treating mental illness. This includes:

1. Researching the scientific report in the evolving science of the brain.

2. Seeking out alternative treatment for all people with mental illness.

3. Supporting new scientific studies for the discovery of the causes of behavioral disorders and mental illness.

4. Conduct research for new clinical practices, service delivery and policies for mental illness. 

5. Research on challenges in the mental health services and institutions as they affect people with mental illness. 

6. Translate and communicate research reports to people with mental illness, their families and the community.

7. Strive for prevention, recovery, and cure.

The goal of this program is to research the most novel and innovative ways to test individuals for mental health symptoms. Many people with mental illness do not know what tests to take to determine whether their symptoms are mental illness or something else. We encourage families to get screened for mental illness and provide them with vital information concerning available tests. The screening helps to determine whether a person is experiencing symptoms of mental health condition. There are different ways to determine whether a person’s symptoms are mental illness or not.

1. Online screening. This is an easy and quick way to know whether there are symptoms of mental illness.

2. Physical examination. Your doctor will look at your past medical history and the medicines you are currently taking. You will also be asked about any history of behavior disorder, mental illness or mental disorders in your family.

3. Assessments and evaluations for mental: This is often done on a computer that can indicate a mental disorder.

4. Genetic testing: This involves analyzing a person’s DNA to identify genetic variations associated with an increased risk of developing mental disorders. 

One out of five people suffer from mental illness. Due to the stigma attached to mental disorder, a lot of people do not seek for help. Early detection and treatment prevent most of the brain damage caused by untreated mental illness.

The goal of this program is to communicate the importance of treatment to individuals with mental illness and their families. Mental health treatments are individualized treatment plans that are developed with a mental health clinician and the individual. They can include psychotherapy, medication, or other treatments. The goals of treatment are to improve quality of life, maintain or enhance daily functioning, and relieve symptoms.

Other helpful options include counselling, peer support, and community support services.

Psychotherapy explores thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and seeks to improve an individual's well-being. Psychotherapy paired with medication is the most effective way to promote recovery.

One of the biggest issues some people with mental illness face is the availability of housing.

Research shows that approximately 45% of homeless people have a mental illness, and 25% of those people are severely mentally ill. These figures compare to the 4.2% of US adults that have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.

What Housing Options Exist for People with Mental Illness?

Mental health housing options range in type, cost, and accessibility. The type of housing that is best for you or your loved one depends on numerous factors, including:

1. ability to function independently

2. adherence to treatment protocols

3. family support

4. individual preferences

5. past experiences with housing.

We work with individuals to determine the appropriate housing option that would suit their individual needs.

The goal of this program is to ensure that persons with mental illness get the education they deserve. Mental illness can affect a person’s energy level, concentration, dependability, mental ability, and optimism, hindering performance. However, persons with mental illness are entitled to reasonable academic accommodations as provided by the American Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990

Providing effective accommodations allows people with mental illness equal access to academic courses and activities. The presence of students with disabilities also contributes to the diversity of the student population.

A greater focus on mental health in higher education can help students invest in their well-being while also lending more understanding and support to their classmates

In addition, this program helps person with mental illness and their families understand that there are alternate academic opportunities at every stage of education that can enable individuals to continue to learn when they are well enough to do so: Special education and alternative high schools.

The debilitating impacts of mental illness, the stigma, multiple hospitalizations and mental episodes can greatly interfere with formal education for a person with mental illness. The goal of this program is to seek skills acquisition programs for people with mental illness.

There is stigma that people with mental illness are not ambitious, motivated, intelligent or able. There is also the stigma that they are unable to handle stress, too sick and even potentially dangerous. This erroneous belief is due to ignorance and lack of information. 

This program aims to educate the community, industry leaders and business owner about the falsity of the stigma and how they can support persons with mental illness through mentoring, apprenticeship and hands on training. Many individuals with mental illness are very intelligent, good at problem solving, very ambitious and hardworking. Sadly, these misconceptions combined with a lack of support keeps many people with mental illness from acquiring skills and getting employment.  

  Employment

The challenge of many hardships related to mental illness is not knowing what to do. The goal of this program is to support people with mental illness and let them know that people with mental illness can, should and often need to work. Work gives a source of purpose and allows persons with mental illness to contribute to their families and society. Sustained employment is an incredibly important factor for recovery. And the majority of those with mental illness can succeed with appropriate support. 

There are several employment support programs that help people with mental illness get and keep jobs. These include:

1. American with Disabilities Act (ADA): Employers may be required under the ADA to provide reasonable accommodations, when requested, to an employee with a disability as long as it does not cause undue hardship on the employer. Examples include telecommuting, scheduling flexibility, sick leave, breaks and noise reduction. 

 2.Supported Employment – Individual Placement and Support (IPS): IPS programs seek to help people with mental illness quickly choose, secure and keep competitive employment while providing ongoing individualized long-term support. They try to place people in jobs that match their talents and interests. IPS programs are highly effective. Competitive employment rates for individuals participating in IPS programs were close to 60% compared to 24% for individuals not in the programs. Yet, less than 2% of people served in state mental health systems received supported employment services.

34 Assertive Community Treatment (ACT): ACT provides intensive support services to people with serious mental illness in the community. The program includes components such as individualized treatment, community integration and job placement. Each ACT team includes an employment specialist. All the different pieces of the program, including employment activities, are incorporated into the person’s overall treatment plan. 

3. Clubhouses: Clubhouses, community-based centers open to individuals living with mental illness, offer supported employment programs. Members of Fountain House, the world’s leading clubhouse for people living with serious mental illness, achieve an employment rate of 42% versus only 15% for people with serious mental illness in the general population. 

Some clubhouses also offer supported education programs. Supported education programs can help people living with mental illness enhance their job prospects. This is important as mental illness often onsets during prime academic years. 

Legal Aid

 People with mental illness deserve help, not handcuffs. Yet people with mental illness are overrepresented in our nation's jails and prisons. We need to reduce criminal justice system involvement and increase investments in mental health care. We can help.

If you have a mental illness, you have rights, including rights about how you get treatment. Your rights are different depending on what sort of patient you are and whether you are on a community treatment order.

There are laws about:

1. what mental illness is

2. how mental illness can be treated, including where the patient cannot or does not consent, and

3. other rights of people with a mental illness, including how they get treatment:

• right to complain if you have a problem with your mental health      treatment  
• right to get help about your treatment, and
• your rights as a patient.