Congress created national Mental Health Awareness Week in 1990 to bring attention to the daily inner struggles experienced by a portion of the population.

In the 30 years since, Donna Lamison, executive director of the Butler County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said the perception and the stigma around mental illness has changed, mostly for the better.

“I think that has changed a lot simply because people are talking about it,” Lamison said. “Back in the day, they thought that a person was a lot of different things, they definitely thought it was something physical.”

Mental Health Awareness Week is this week, and as usual NAMI has been promoting mental health and ways people can get help for different conditions.

The week will culminate in a Day of Hope Saturday. Lamison said a team of about 10 people, “Butler Making Strides,” will attend a morning walk at Monroeville Community Park West meant to fundraise for NAMI Keystone PA, and then the chapter will have its own walk at noon on the Freeport Community Trail starting at Bonniebrook Road.

Lamison said anyone is welcome to participate with the Butler team, and she hopes walking in unity can inspire people to seek help. Lamison said a portion of the money raised through the regional walk will go right into NAMI’s mental health programs.

“We hope it focuses on the positive and sends a message of hope to people with mental illness,” Lamison said. “We’re very fortunate in Butler to have a lot of supportive organizations.”

According to Lamison, almost everybody is likely to know someone who suffers from some type of mental illness. She said about one in five adults nationwide experience mental illness each year, one in 20 experience serious effects and one in six youths experience mental illness each year.

She said the most important message NAMI wants to spread this week is that the invisible illness doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. “You are not alone,” she said.

“Mental disorder can’t be tested the same way as diabetes or strep throat or anything like that,” Lamison said. For more information on the regional walk, or the Butler walk, visit namiwalks.org.