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MIAMI (AP) — National mental health leaders are hosting a conference in Miami this weekend aimed at stopping the stigma surrounding mental illness.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine partnered to host the "STOP the Stigma: A Mental Health Summit" at UM.
NAMI says Miami is home to one of the highest populations of residents with mental illness, with more than nine percent suffering from the disease.
NAMI Director Susan Racher says stigma results in indifference, prejudice, insufficient funding for treatment and research, and deficient access to care. Stigma gives rise to the assumption that the ill cannot be helped and to unconscionable delays in treating those who are ill until they are in crisis.
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