National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
NIMH* is the nation's top supporter of research on mental disorders. The vast majority of NIMH funding goes to basic biomedical and behavioral research and clinical studies. Services research is also part of NIMH's mandate, and NIMH supports studies examining disabilities and employment. To underscore the need for services research, the U.S. Congress mandated that 12% of NIMH's budget be dedicated to mental health services in fiscal year 1993 and 15% in subsequent years. 13 NIMH has focused its support for services research on:
* general disability and psychiatric disability, including its characterization, assessment, and measurement;
* vocational rehabilitation, employment issues in general and the ADA in particular;
* public attitudes attached to mental disorders.
*NIMH has recently been reunited with the National Institute of Health. NIMH is a sub-branch of NIH
DEPRESSION awareness, recognition, and treatment program (D/ART)
One of the most successful initiatives sponsored by NIMH has been D/ART, which was initiated by the NIMH Division of Services and Intervention Research in 1985 to develop and implement a public campaign on depression.14 The major goals of this campaign were to fight the pervasive stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness; to sensitize the nation to the serious public health problem of unrecognized and untreated depression; and to develop literature on intervention and treatment for depression. D/ART activities included:15
* reviewing and assessing current knowledge of mental health issues;
* establishing a new set of public and private organizational connections;
* producing specialized print and media materials;
* developing media relations.
D/ART has been highly successful in de-stigmatizing and creating general public awareness regarding etiology, intervention, and treatment of depressive disorders. According to Isabel Davidoff, one of the founders of D/ART and currently Chief of the National Worksite Program in NIMH, D/ART was a major catalyst in the explosion of information and materials on depression in the general media. It also spurred the increased receptiveness of employers to recognizing the impact of depression on costs and performance. By the late 1990s, at least among larger employers, a substantial change had occurred in the understanding of depression and other mental health disorders. In 1997, D/ART was reconfigured as the National Worksite Program, which works almost exclusively with employers and organizations handling employment issues.
The national worksite program
The National Worksite Program, which began under NIMH in 1987, is a cooperative effort with the Washington Business Group on Health (WBGH). Its objectives are to sensitize employers nationwide to the public health problem of unrecognized and untreated depression and to stimulate the adoption of corporate policies and practices that promote early recognition, quality care, return to work, and on-the-job support for individuals with depressive illness. To achieve these objectives, the National Worksite Program activities have included :
