NAMI – Northern Virginia

2002 Annual Report

(with supplementary material for 2003)

 

This year, the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Northern Virginia (AMI-NV) changed it’s name to NAMI-Northern Virginia to coordinate with the name change of the national organization from National Alliance for the Mentally Ill to NAMI.

 

To understand the role of NAMI-Northern Virginia (NAMI-NoVa), it helps to know where and how the organization fits into the “big picture.”  NAMI-NoVa is affiliated with the parent organization, NAMI, headquartered in Arlington, VA, through the state organization, NAMI-VA, located in Richmond.  NAMI-NoVa is also linked to other mental health support organizations throughout Virginia and the rest of the country.  For example, locally, we have ongoing communication with organizations including, among many, Compeer, Pathway Homes, Laurie Mitchell Employment Center, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (PRS), Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute, Fairfax-Falls Church Community Service Board (FFCCSB), and the ARC of Northern Virginia.

 

NAMI was founded in 1979 and has more than 220,000 members who seek equitable services for people with severe mental illnesses.  NAMI is dedicated to the eradication of mental illnesses and to the improvement of the quality of life of all whose lives are affected by these diseases.  It is a nonprofit, grassroots, self-help, support and advocacy organization of consumers, families, and friends of people with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety disorders.  NAMI has 1,200 state and local affiliates in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and Canada.

 

NAMI has built its organization on four cornerstones: support, education, advocacy and research and it relies on the state organizations to perform many of these functions, while it concentrates on keeping the Congress of the United States aware and informed of the serious issues associated with mental illness.  Among these issues are affordable housing, health insurance, sufficient funds for research, and many other inadequacies people with mental illness faces on a daily basis. (websites:  nami.org, namivirginia.org)

 

NAMI-NoVa provides support to individuals and families affected by mental illness in the northern Virginia counties of Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William and the city of Falls Church.  We maintain close communications with the Arlington and Fairfax/Falls Church CSBs  and are looking to build closer ties with the CSBs in the other counties.  With approximately 600 members we are one of the largest local organizations in the country.  Our activities are aligned with NAMI’s four cornerstones:

 

SUPPORT – NAMI-NoVa offers understanding, encouragement, mutual support, and skills needed by all who have been personally struck with mental illness or who encounter it through a friend or loved one.  Our goal is to provide the necessary systems for all to cope, including children, adolescents and adults.  Examples of these activities are maintaining a non-emergency telephone support system to establishing support group meetings.

 

 

EDUCATION -- NAMI-NoVa provides education and training, both formal and informal, for its members and other interested parties.  NAMI has developed a number of unique education programs -- such as Family-to-Family, Wellness Recovery, and In Our Own Voice: Living with Mental Illness -- each designed to promote recovery and to educate family members and friends of people with mental illnesses as well as consumers themselves.  We also provide, at our monthly meetings, speakers in professional occupations who cover every aspect of issues associated with mental illness.

 

Courses - The NAMI Family-to-Family Education Program is a free 12-week course for family caregivers of individuals with severe brain disorders (mental illness).  The course is taught by trained family members.  All instruction and course materials are free for class participants

 

The Family-to-Family curriculum focuses on schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (manic-depression), clinical depression, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).  The course discusses the clinical treatment of these illnesses and teaches the knowledge and skills that family members need to cope more effectively.  The classes sponsored by NAMI-NoVa are formed as enough members are available to form a small group.  Ellen Storck and Dave Ingold conducted the "Family to Family" program in Alexandria and Chuck Busby and Callie Curtis taught the course in Reston. 

 

Diane Engster presented a new consumer education course in the Mt. Vernon area of Fairfax.  The course was sponsored by NAMI-NoVa and it was based on the Wellness Recovery Action Plan.

 

In Our Own Voice (IOOV) trains Consumers to deliver the message that any differences perceived by the public between people with and without mental illnesses are incidental to the commonalities we share.  Our audiences have included universities, corporations, and the general population. We have just obtained a grant of $2,000 from the TRW-ECHO program, which will be matched by $2,000 from NAMI-national, to expand the program with new speakers and to new audiences.

 

Support Group Facilitation – NAMI-NoVa, in conjunction with the national organization, is beginning to provide training for Support Groups facilitators.  If you wish to start a Support Group, or already facilitate or belong to an existing group, please contact us at our Helpline or via email.

 

Membership Meetings – NAMI-NoVa holds monthly general membership meetings.  It provides NAMI members and the public an opportunity to find-out what is going on within the organization.  Regular members can talk to Board members and comment on topics of their choice.  Current brochures and literature are available to everyone, thanks to the tireless efforts of Margaret Moore.  We provide informal education to our members through our Speaker program, run by Joyce Edelson. Attendance varied


between 15-50.  Speakers during 2002 and 2003 were:

·         Schizophrenia Panel – lead:  Marshall Epstein, MH consumer

·         Estate Planning – Jerry Rugel

·         NIMH on Schizophrenia – Dr. Anne E. Riley

·         Suicide and Incarceration – Dr. Jane Pearson

·         Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute – Muhammed El-Sabaawi

·         PACT – Jean Hartman, Elizabeth Edgar

·         NAMI-VA – Val Marsh

·         Law & Mental Health – John Whitbeck

·         CSB – Cynthia Harrison

·         Inspector General for Mental Health for Virginia – Dr. Anita Everett

·         Recovery Model Panel – lead:  Sharon Jones, CSB

·         Media and Mental Illness – Joe O’Connor, Nightline Producer

·         Special Justice – Mark Bodner, Esquire

 

Publications -  Jim Hardcastle edits, writes and publishes the NAMI-NoVa Newsletter, with input from various NAMI-NoVa board members.  It is published monthly (except July, August and December). Articles, comments or suggestions for subject matter are greatly appreciated.  Muriel Strickland is a regular contributor of current research information on medicine and other topics.

 

Current news items requiring broader and perhaps quicker publication are sent to news organizations with larger memberships and broader distribution by Carol McDonough, our Public Relations Program chair. 

 

The Arlington Voice is another newsletter affiliated with and supported by NAMI-NoVa that also contains excellent information for families and consumers of mental illness.  It is published by Betsy Greer, who leads the Arlington division of NAMI-NoVa. 

 

ADVOCACY - NAMI-NoVa serves as an advocate for those who suffer from or live with mental illness, by bringing their problems and perspectives to the attention of state and county government officials and lobbying for improvements in their care and conditions.  Our goals are to not only protect existing services, which are always under budget pressures, but to improve and expand the services, facilities, research, treatment, support and rehabilitation programs for the mentally ill. 

 

The efforts and initiatives to accomplish these goals goes on relentlessly by so many people, on a daily basis.  It’s impossible to capture all of the actions in a summary document such as this but the following may give you a small idea of the members activities:

 

·         NAMI members attended the Federal Mental Health Parity Rally at the U.S. Capital to demonstrate support for equality in health care.

 

·         Ellen Storck chaired our ad hoc Hospitals Committee, which met with representatives of Dominion Hospital, HCA corp. which owns Dominion and Northern Virginia, expressing our concerns about the closing of Dominion.

 

·         Carol Ulrich co-chaired the steering committee for the 22nd Annual Legislative Breakfast sponsored by the Coalition for Mentally Disabled Citizens of Northern Virginia, where members met with northern Virginia legislators and local government officials about pressing mental health issues.

 

·         Members of the Board attended numerous workshops, public hearings and appeared before legislative committees to testify on various issues.  Some brief  examples: Claire Williams at St. Barnabas church events; Bill Yolton and Diane Engster at county and state hearings; Jose Armilla at a state hearing; Bob Simon and many others at state, county and committee hearings plus workshops and other events.

 

·         Board member Herb Taylor served on the Fairfax/Falls Church Community Service Board and numerous other committees and continues to actively recruit mental health advocates to serve on various boards and committees.

 

·         Board members Joe Hinshaw, Claire Williams and Bill Yolton served on the NVMHI Advisory Council.

 

·         Bob Simon chose not to seek a third year as president and Carol Ulrich was elected president of  NAMI-NoVa in June 2002.  Returning officers were vice-president Frank Edmondson, secretary Tony Gallagher, and treasure Don Gantzer.  These four officers were re-elected by the board for the 2003-04 term.

 

·         The 3rd annual mental illness awareness conference in Fairfax County honored Emil Franks with the Ed and Vivian Brazil Leadership and Lifetime Award. 

 

·         Treasurer Don Gantzer reported that NAMI-NoVa finished the year 2002 with $14,561 in its bank account (~ 10% over 2001).  Our June 2003 balance is over $20,000.  We plan to reduce this balance with all due haste in support of individuals and organizations affected by mental illness.

 

·         Frank Edmondson, vice-president and Development Chair, has increased our fund-raising via a matching contribution campaign and applications for grants.

 

·         Bill Yolton, through the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee he chairs, initiated a successful meeting with the Fairfax County Sheriff and FFCCSB staff for the purpose of restoring funds for treatment of Consumers in the Adult Detention Center.  This resulted in contributions from both the Sheriff and the CSB to restore services and, also, a cooperative effort by all three parties in a Jail Diversion Pilot Project to ensure bail, housing, mentoring and mental health services to detainees who want to be released and receive mental health treatment outside the jail.

 

·         Major organizations for which NAMI-NoVa provided financial support during the year are: the Laurie Mitchell Employment Center run by consumers to train consumers for jobs; the Clarendon House, a clubhouse for and by those suffering from mental illness; Pathway Homes which provides housing in Northern Virginia for the mentally ill; Compeer which matches a “friend” with a consumer to establish some companionship; CHOICE and Wings House, organizations dedicated to providing homes for people with both physical and mental disabilities; and PRS. 

 

Respectfully submitted by:

Carol Ulrich

President, NAMI-Northern Virginia

 

(Content prepared by:  Donald J. Gantzer, Treasurer; Tony Gallagher, Secretary; Joyce Edelson, Speaker Program Chair)

 

website:  www.naminova.org

email: 

HelpLine:  703-525-0686