If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. It is free, confidential in most circumstances, and available 24 hours a day.
Mental Illness Awareness Week is a national observance held during the first full week of October, and in 2026 it runs October 5 through 11. Congress established it in 1990 after years of pushing from NAMI. The point of the week is not to inform you that mental illness exists. You know. The point, at least the useful version of it, is to shorten the distance between knowing and doing something.
NAMI’s 2026 theme is Building Community: Supporting Mental Well-Being Together. Which is convenient for us, because community is more or less the whole argument for group treatment.
When is Mental Illness Awareness Week, and why does it matter?
October 5 to 11, 2026. World Mental Health Day lands on October 10, inside the same week, so most of the programming you will see stacks up in those seven days.
The reason it matters is the gap. In 2024, 23.4% of United States adults, about 61.5 million people, had any mental illness in the past year (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2025). Roughly 23.0% of adults received mental health treatment that year. Those numbers look close, but they are not the same people, and treatment is doing a lot of work as a category, since it counts a single prescription refill.
Here is the part I find myself repeating in supervision. Awareness weeks tend to produce a spike in people deciding to get help and no matching spike in available appointments. In my work I have watched people go from motivated to discouraged inside three weeks of phone tag. Groups are one of the few parts of the system with actual open seats.
What does the research say about group treatment?
Broadly, group and individual formats produce comparable outcomes across a wide range of conditions. Reviews of the small-group treatment literature have repeatedly found no reliable overall difference between the two when the same treatment is delivered in each format (Burlingame & Strauss, 2021). That finding holds better for some conditions than others, and it is an average across many studies, so it does not tell you what will happen to you specifically.
Where groups do something individual therapy structurally cannot: they put you in a room with people who are further along. Yalom called it universality and instillation of hope. Less formally, it is the experience of hearing someone describe your exact 3 a.m. thought out loud and then continue talking about their week like a functioning adult.
What I would push on is the idea that groups are the cheap substitute. They are not a downgrade. For some things, particularly shame-heavy ones, they are the better tool.
Groups for mental health conditions in our directory
Search by what is actually going on. A few common starting points: anxiety groups, depression groups, bipolar disorder groups, and peer support groups.
If you want background first, read our complete guide to group therapy, or the comparison of group therapy and individual therapy. Worried about money? We broke down what group therapy costs and what insurance covers.
How do you choose a group during an awareness week?
- Pick the problem, not the diagnosis. If the diagnosis is unclear or contested, search for what bothers you. Panic. Isolation. Rage.
- Check who runs it. Peer-led groups are usually free and are not clinical treatment. Clinician-led groups are treatment and usually cost something.
- Ask about screening. Good clinician-led groups screen you first. That is a green flag, not a hurdle.
- Match the intensity. A weekly psychoeducation group and a twice-weekly intensive are different commitments. Be honest about your bandwidth this month.
- Give it three sessions. Almost nobody feels at home in week one. Almost everybody thinks they should.
Also worth reading: what to expect at a first group session.
Other resources
- NAMI HelpLine, 800-950-6264, plus free NAMI Connection and NAMI Family Support Group programs nationwide.
- SAMHSA National Helpline, 800-662-4357, free and confidential treatment referral, 24/7.
- FindTreatment.gov for licensed programs by location.
- Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance for free peer groups, online and local.
- 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Call or text 988, any time.
Frequently asked questions
What is Mental Illness Awareness Week?
Mental Illness Awareness Week is a United States observance held during the first full week of October, established by Congress in 1990 after advocacy from NAMI. In 2026 it runs October 5 through 11. The week is used by advocacy organizations, health systems, schools, and workplaces to reduce stigma, share information about treatment, and connect people to services. World Mental Health Day, coordinated globally by the World Health Organization, falls on October 10 inside the same week, so the two are often marked together.
How common is mental illness in the United States?
In 2024, 23.4% of adults, roughly 61.5 million people, experienced any mental illness in the past year according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. About 23.0% of adults received some form of mental health treatment in the same period, and among adults with serious mental illness specifically, 70.8% received treatment. Those figures are self-reported and treatment is defined broadly, so they tell you something about scale rather than about quality or adequacy of care.
Is a support group as good as therapy?
Find a group
These are in the directory now. Listings show format, schedule, cost, and who runs the group, and you contact the group leader directly.
More: mental health support groups anxiety support groups depression support groups
They are different things, so the comparison is a little off. A peer support group is mutual help, free or low cost, and not a clinical service. Group therapy is treatment delivered by a licensed clinician, and research reviews generally find group and individual formats produce comparable outcomes when the same treatment is delivered in both. If you have a diagnosed condition needing treatment, a peer group is a good supplement and a poor replacement. If what you mainly need is connection and people who understand, a peer group may be exactly right.
What if I cannot afford treatment?
Start with free peer support. NAMI runs free Connection groups for people living with a mental health condition and free Family Support Groups for relatives, in most states. The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance runs free chapters online and in person. Community mental health centers use sliding-scale fees based on income and are required to serve people regardless of ability to pay in many states. The SAMHSA National Helpline at 800-662-4357 can point you to low-cost options in your area at no charge.
How do I find a mental health group near me?
Search The Group Guide directory by keyword, condition, or location, and filter for online groups if geography is the obstacle. Beyond that, call the NAMI HelpLine at 800-950-6264 to ask what runs locally, check FindTreatment.gov for licensed programs, and ask your primary care office, since many practices keep an informal referral list. If your employer has an employee assistance program, that is often the fastest free route to a first appointment.
References
Burlingame, G. M., & Strauss, B. (2021). Efficacy of small group treatments: Foundation for evidence-based practice. In M. Barkham, W. Lutz, & L. G. Castonguay (Eds.), Bergin and Garfield’s handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (7th ed., pp. 583-624). Wiley.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2025). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/
Written by Stephanie Smith, LCSW.
The Group Guide is a directory. Group leaders write their own listings, and we do not vet, supervise, or endorse the groups listed here. We are not a clinic and we do not provide clinical services or guarantee outcomes, that is the group’s work, not ours. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.