Obituary: Woman who helped found NAMI dies at 92

From The New York Times:

Harriet Shetler (pictured), whose experience as the mother of a son with schizophrenia led her to help start a national organization to address mental health needs, died Tuesday in Madison, Wis. She was 92.

Her death was confirmed by her daughter, Jane S. Ross.

Today the organization Mrs. Shetler helped start, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has affiliates in every state and more than 1,100 communities. It offers support to the mentally ill and people living with them; promotes research and education on mental illness; and lobbies governments on mental health concerns.

Its beginnings go back to the anxiety Mrs. Shetler felt after her son, Charles, was identified as schizophrenic. A friend at the Congregational church she attended put her in touch with another church member, Beverly Young, who faced similar challenges with her own schizophrenic son.

The two women met for lunch in 1977 and had instant rapport, Mrs. Young said Thursday in an interview. At a second lunch, the women, both active in civic and charitable activities, decided to assemble people with similar concerns. In April 1977, about 13 people met at a nightclub in Madison.

Mrs. Shetler suggested a name, Alliance for the Mentally Ill, partly because its acronym meant “friend” in French. (The name was later changed slightly to broaden its scope.) Within six months, 75 people had joined.

When members came across a newsletter from a similar organization in California, they were thrilled to find they were not alone, Mrs. Young said. She said Mrs. Shetler hit upon the bold idea of holding a national conference. Mrs. Young said that they expected perhaps 35 people to come, but that more than 250 showed up. Among them were mental health professionals, including Dr. Herbert Pardes, then director of the National Institute of Mental Health and now president and chief executive of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

By the end of the conference, a national group had been formed, named and financed.

In 1999, in an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Dr. Steven Hyman, then director of the National Institute of Mental Health, called the alliance “the greatest single advocacy force in mental health.”

Last year, this advocacy came into question. Congressional investigators found that from 2006 to 2008 drug makers had contributed nearly $23 million to the alliance, about three-quarters of its donations, according to The New York Times. The disclosure followed criticism of the group for tailoring its legislative agenda to help the pharmaceutical industry, The Times reported.

In a letter to The Times last October, Michael J. Fitzpatrick, the alliance’s executive director, said the group strictly prohibited endorsement or promotion of any specific medication, treatment, service or product.

Harriet Jane McCown was born on Aug. 1, 1917, in Leechburg, Pa., and graduated from Monmouth College in 1938. She worked for many years as a reporter and editor for newspapers, scientific and industrial magazines and the University of Wisconsin’s extension service.

Mrs. Shetler’s husband of 67 years, Charles W. Shetler, died on March 21. In addition to her daughter and son, she is survived by two grandsons.