Education, support and advocacy is the recipe that the National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota uses to nurture the hope of people living with mental illnesses and those who love them. There is less shame and fear about mental illnesses and a better understanding that they can be treated, managed and that recovery is possible, just like other diseases, thanks to their work.  Sue Abderholden, NAMI MN’s executive director for almost 22 years, learned from one of her mentors that if you are going to look forward, you have to be willing to look back. When she looks ahead, there is still so much to be done to improve the lives of people living with mental illnesses. But looking back, she sees how much better it has gotten, and says, “it’s been an incredible journey that I am honored to be a part of.”

Deep Bonds

Sue started out wanting to go to medical school, but it was the 1970s and not a lot of women were being admitted. She had good grades and had done well on the MCAT, so she got interviews. At one of them, she was asked if she planned to get married and have a family. She answered yes, which made her interviewers think she wasn’t serious about being a doctor. She was asked the same question at another interview, and this time she was ready. She responded no, but this time her interviewers wondered what was wrong with her.

At the time, Sue was doing research on stress ulcers at a local hospital. She had gotten to know the head of surgery, and he suggested she work with kids with disabilities as a way to build her resume. One of her colleagues had a connection to Dakota’s Children, one of a handful of group homes that existed at the time that were a significantly better alternative to state-run hospitals, which were awful. Sue was hired, and she loved the work. She got to know families that were under huge stress making difficult decisions about how to best care for their children with little to no support. She formed deep bonds with them and is still in touch with several of them to this day.

Sue completed a master’s degree in public health while working odd jobs, including at a residence for people with serious mental illnesses. After graduate school, she landed a job at the Minnesota State Department of Health, but discovered working in a large bureaucracy was not a good fit for her. A position at The Arc of Minnesota to become the public policy director was open and Sue applied. The families she’d grown close to at the group home all wrote letters of recommendation for her. She got the job.

Sue went on to become Arc’s executive director. She loved the work, because she got to do a little bit of everything, but it was also demanding, and she was raising a family. She moved on from Arc to work for Senator Paul Wellstone in a job-share role directing constituent services and then on to the Pacer Center. From there, she became the executive director of NAMI MN. Sue had people she loved who struggled with mental illnesses, so the work was close to her heart. Also, it was a relatively new and much smaller organization. But Sue discovered once she started, it was in tougher shape than she realized, and the only other full-time staff member quit her first week.  The upside was there was no one around to say, “we don’t do it that way.”

Changing Attitudes

Sue began advancing NAMI MN’s mission of education, support and advocacy and hasn’t stopped since. Today, their staff and budget are much bigger, and they use a number of strategies to carry out their mission, including peer-led support groups, booklets about mental illnesses and state law and a helpline. Also, Sue spends a lot of time at the State Capitol when the legislature is in session and in the community educating, supporting and advocating.

NAMI MN is part of a community that is changing attitudes about mental health and mental illnesses. When Sue spends time at the State Capitol, legislators seek her out to discuss issues related to mental illnesses, because they are hearing from their constituents about them. As awful as the pandemic was, it increased awareness of and helped change the conversation about mental illnesses in a good way, because so many people experienced some level of anxiety and or depression as they adjusted to life in lockdown. Also, athletes and other celebrities are talking and writing openly about their mental health and struggles with mental illnesses.

But Sue knows better than most just how far we have to go. How we talk about mental illnesses is one area where change is needed most. At NAMI MN, they have an exercise where they ask people to list all of the slang words for mental illnesses, and they always end up with a robust list of negative and demeaning words. They then invite the same people to list slang words for cancer, diabetes or heart disease, and they are always met with silence, because there aren’t any. Sue especially wants to bring an end to the use of the word “stigma” when discussing mental illnesses and replace it with “discrimination.” That is what far too many people with mental illnesses experience every day, because it is an easy group to discriminate against. She points out that we no longer use the “R” word to refer to people with intellectual disabilities, so it is possible to change the language we use for mental illnesses. 

Sue wrote an op-ed about the need to stop conflating mental illnesses and violence. It is far more common for individuals with mental illnesses to be the victims of violence. In our attempt to make meaning of the violence people commit, blaming it on a mental illness is an easy assumption to make. But the link between them is over exaggerated and does real harm by keeping people from seeking treatment, because they fear they will be thought of as violent. 

We Know What Works

We actually know what works when it comes to treating mental illnesses, but we resist or refuse to pay for it.  Even though mental health parity exists, enforcement is nearly nonexistent. Sue says it was despicable that in previous years health insurers would pay to board a child having mental health crisis in an emergency room, but wouldn’t pay for that same child to stay at a psychiatric residential treatment facility to receive needed care.  Thankfully, during the 2023 Minnesota State Legislative session, a law was passed requiring health plans to cover care at psychiatric residential treatment facilities.

Also, we don’t have the workforce to meet the demand. There is a shortage of culturally-informed mental health professionals, especially from communities of color. Sue points out that it is hard to attract people into the field when a clinical social worker with a master’s degree and 4,000 hours of supervision is paid less than a dental hygienist in the state of Minnesota.

Making Life Better

NAMI MN gives staff the time and space to take care of themselves physically and mentally while doing this difficult and demanding work. Staff are encouraged to use their vacation and sick time, including for mental health days. Sue tries to model for other staff the importance of taking care of yourself by making time for a walk every day, which she says is therapeutic, and not scheduling any meetings before 9 AM. It may not seem like much to some, but it helps her navigate and sustain the long hours she works.

Sue says NAMI MN has a wonderful staff, board and volunteers. Together, they are creating change that is making life better for people with mental illnesses and those who love them.  Such a simple recipe - education, support and advocacy - giving hope to so many.

Learn More

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress, dial 988 to receive free and confidential support 24/7.

Please visit NAMI MN to learn about:

• How to get involved, including volunteering.

• Online classes and upcoming events.

• Resources to support people experiencing mental illness and the people that love them

• How to make a tax deductible donation. NAMI MN is funded mostly through gifts from individuals

To find the local NAMI organization in your state, please visit NAMI