NAMI’s Hearts+Minds is a wellness program designed to educate and empower you to better manage your health — mentally and physically.
There is a clear and critical need to care for mental and physical health simultaneously. Understanding this connection and synergy is vital to overall wellness.
Facts to consider:
- Two-thirds of deaths are caused by chronic diseases that can be prevented or better managed. And these diseases impact people with serious mental illness at alarming rates.
- People with depression have a 40% higher risk of developing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases than the general population.
- People with serious mental illness have high rates of obesity — 41% for men and 50% for women.
- People with serious mental illness have twice the rate of type 2 diabetes than the general population.
- People with cardiovascular disease and serious mental illness have a 10–20 year shorter life span than the general population.