Ken Duckworth’s family moved away from Glenolden when he was eight years old because of his father’s mental illness, but no one in the family said it out loud, writes Abraham Gutman for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

There was s a commotion while he was playing in the basement of his Glenolden home. A police officer was taking his screaming father to Philadelphia State Hospital to be treated for his bipolar disorder. 

“He was loving and fun and gentle,” Duckworth said. “He was also extremely ill.”

They moved to Michigan a few months later after his father’s employer transferred him to Detroit because of his hospitalization, but no one in the family ever said that was why they moved.

Today, Duckworth is chief medical officer of the nonprofit National Alliance on Mental Illness or NAMI.

His career path was shaped by his desire to understand what happened to his father and help him.

Now Duckworth’s written a book, You Are Not Alone: The NAMI Guide to Navigating Mental Health, to help those touched by mental illness find the answers they need.

“You don’t have to be on your own,” he said. “You can learn from each other.”

Read more about Ken Duckworth’s new book in The Philadelphia Inquirer.