The National Alliance on Mental Illness issued a statement Friday night chastising both Dr. Phil and NBC’s Brian Williams for inappropriate remarks they have made which stigmatized persons with mental illnesses.

NAMI’s statement [printed below] further legitimizes complaints that I raised in an Op Ed about Dr. Phil published Wednesday in USA Today’s online edition and blogs published by others criticizing Dr. Phil and Williams. Major news sources often don’t pay much attention to individual blogs, but do react when NAMI, the largest grassroots mental health organization with more than 300,000 members, issues a statement.

I hope NAMI’s statement will bring additional pressure on NBC’s Williams and Dr. Phil to publicly apologize, although I am skeptical either will.

Meanwhile, you can add a third offender to the list of television personalities who should know better but apparently believe it is funny to make light about persons with mental illnesses.

The Dr. Oz show recently featured a two part segment called “Are You Normal or Nuts?” with this catchy caption:

Is your craziness is cause for concern? Dr. Oz enlists a panel of professionals to explain your weirdest quirks, anxieties and dreams. Watch as a team of the nation’s top psychologists evaluate audience members to determine if they’re normal or nuts!

Using a so-called panel of experts, who flipped over Olympic style judging boards bearing the words Nuts and Normal, and a large scale, Dr. Oz diagnosed audience members, declaring in seconds if they were normal or nuts.

As the parent of a son with a serious mental illness I find Dr. Phil’s comments and Dr. Oz’s sideshow antics especially offensive given that both are spewing out mental health advice on national television in ways that demean individuals who need support, encouragement and hope, not ridicule.