NAMI-Northern Virginia 2005-2006 Annual Report

NAMI-Northern Virginia (NAMI-NoVA) is an association of volunteers whose purpose is to provide support and education to people with mental illnesses (consumers) and their families, and advocacy to the community, including public officials, to ensure that consumers are afforded opportunities to live, work, learn and participate fully in their communities, free of stigma, and fully enjoying their human rights.

NAMI is dedicated to promoting public awareness of mental illness and advancing the provision of best practices and favorable outcomes which support the integration of people diagnosed with mental illness into the fabric of society, promoting the self-determination, hopes and well being of individuals and their families.

NAMI-NoVA is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit corporation. Our office address and contact number are:

NAMI-Northern Virginia
1820 Michael Faraday Drive
Reston, VA 20190
(703) 525-0686
http://www.naminova.org/

Affiliate Status

NAMI-NoVA is an affiliate of NAMI-Virginia and, through them, the national NAMI organization.

Board of Directors

NAMI-NoVA is governed by a board of directors elected by the membership to three year terms expiring in May, representing the geographical areas we serve: Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William counties, plus the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church, Virginia. Directors serve without compensation and are from various professional and business backgrounds including mental health professions, management, government, education, non-profits, law and others. Directors come to the organization because they are consumers, family members, or interested in supporting consumers of mental health services.

The board of directors meets the third Thursday of each month (except July, August, and December) at 7:00 p.m. at the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute (NVMHI), 3302 Gallows Road, Falls Church, VA.

Table: 2005-06 Board of Directors

DIRECTOR	Term Expires	Committee or Function
Herb Taylor	2006	Advisory
Emil Franks	2006	Support Groups
Ellen Storck	2006	Advisory
Jose Armilla	2006	Personnel Chair
Frank Edmondson	2006	V.P., Development
Phil Ross	2006	Prince William Coordinator
Andy Stelmack	2006	Treasurer nominee
Carol Ulrich	2007	President
Tony Gallagher	2007	Secretary/Treasurer
Erin Finney	2007	Event Coordinator
Karin Asghar	2007	Membership
Dave O’Brien	2007	Events
Marshall Epstein	2007	Education Chair
Marci Reed	2007	Secretary nominee
Joe Hinshaw	2008	Advisory
Dotti McKee	2008	Housing Chair
Margaret Moore	2008	Literature/Publicity
Ginger Smith	2008	Housing
Doug Baker	2008	V.P., Operations nominee

Officers

Officers are elected by the board of directors to one year terms and serve without compensation. Officers for the 2005-2006 period were:

Carol Ulrich, President
Frank Edmondson, Vice-President
Tony Gallagher, Secretary/Treasurer

NAMI-NoVA Chapters

The volunteer board of directors governs the activities of NAMI-NoVA and its Chapters. In addition, our Arlington and Prince William Coordinators pay special attention to advocacy issues, meetings and events in their respective counties.

NAMI-Virginia

NAMI-VA is located in Richmond, VA and provides support and liaison with our national organization and other local NAMI affiliates within the state by means of regular communication and meetings with the presidents of Virginia’s affiliates.

NAMI’s national organization:

NAMI is headquartered in Arlington, VA and provides all necessary support to local affiliates both directly and through its state affiliates.

NAMI is a nonprofit, grassroots, self-help, support and advocacy organization of consumers, families, and friends of people with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic and other severe anxiety disorders, autism and pervasive developmental disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and other severe and persistent mental illnesses that affect the brain.

Founded in 1979, NAMI today works to achieve equitable services and treatment for more than 15 million Americans living with severe mental illnesses and their families. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers participate in more than one thousand local affiliates and fifty state organizations to provide education and support, combat stigma, support increased funding for research, and advocate for adequate health insurance, housing, rehabilitation, and jobs for people with mental illnesses and their families.

Local affiliates and state organizations identify and work on issues most important to their community and state. Individual membership and the extraordinary work of hundreds of thousands of volunteer leaders is the lifeblood of NAMI's local affiliates and state organizations. The national office, under the direction of an elected Board of Directors, provides strategic direction to the entire organization, support to NAMI's state and affiliate members, governs the NAMI Corporation, and engages in advocacy, education and leadership development nationally.

In all cases, members of local affiliates are consumers, family members, professionals, and friends who come together to share and take comfort in the commonality of their experiences and to educate members of their communities about serious brain disorders. In addition to providing support, affiliates also:

The following programs are provided free of charge to members and to the public.

Peer Support

Support Groups: The NAMI-Northern Virginia support group meetings consist of individuals and families coping with severe mental illness. They offer confidential emotional support and information about local services that may be able to help with specific problems. Some groups are designed for consumers, while others are for family/friends.

NAMI-NoVA offers Support Groups at fourteen locations throughout Northern Virginia, on a monthly or weekly basis, serving from 3 to 19 recipients at each meeting. There is no cost for these groups

This year, NAMI-NoVA launched an initiative to provide workplace family support groups at local corporations and other organizations.

See page 7 for a specific listing of dates, times and locations of group meetings throughout Northern Virginia.

Public Education

General membership meetings: Meetings are held the fourth Monday of each month (except July, August, December) in Falls Church and the second Tuesday of each month in Arlington to educate members and the general public on topics related to mental illness, featuring a speaker or panel with special knowledge of the evening’s subject. Attendance varies between 15-40 attendees at each site.

Newsletters: A newsletter is published nine months of the year covering the Northern Virginia area, and another is published five times per year with special emphasis on the Arlington community. The newsletters contain a variety of information ranging from scheduled speakers at future meetings; national or local issues associated with mental illness such as funding, housing, etc.; topics on medical research of drugs or treatments for mental illness. Approximately 500 copies of each are mailed to members and distributed to mental health service providers covering our activities, recent advances in research and treatment, and other issues related to mental illness.

In Our Own Voice: NAMI-NoVA, in conjunction with NAMI-Loudoun, began training additional consumers to take their message of education, hope and recovery to the general public. Trained consumers are available to take a video presentation to corporations, civic organizations and public education forums to answer questions about mental illness and to share their own personal experience of the illness and their road to recovery.

Literature

Educational material and brochures on mental illnesses, treatment and services are made available at support groups, monthly membership meetings, symposiums and conferences, mental health centers, Arlington’s Special Education Parent Resource Center, and the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute.

Referral

A link to Northern Virginia CSBs, which provide contact information for mental health centers, is provided on our website. Although we do not provide a list of private providers, people may receive individual recommendations, at support groups or via email to our organization, regarding a doctor whom a member has found to be helpful for his or her own particular disorder.

Symposiums/Workshops

Family to Family Education Program: 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 to 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.

Three courses were taught in 2005, with approximately 20 attendees at each: Jan. 15-April 9; Sept. 7- Nov. 16; and Aug. 29-Nov.21.

Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute (NVMHI) Programs

In meetings between NAMI-NoVA members and the NVMHI’s Facility Director and program managers, a partnership was formed to provide education and support to patients and their family members at the Institute. As part of this effort, we presented a Family Day Program in May 2004, where Institute staff, members of the Institute’s Advisory Council and NAMI-NoVA members presented an education program and a question and answer session to interested relatives of patients at the Institute; developed a “NAMI-Corner” which provides educational material and will be the setting for NAMI-NoVA volunteers to sit and talk with patients and families monthly; and plan to present a Family to Family course at the Institute’s administrative meeting room.

Public Awareness

Mental Illness Awareness Week

NAMI-NoVA participated in funding and organization of special observations of Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) in Fairfax and Arlington counties. MIAW is a yearly nationwide week focusing on mental illness, held the first full week in October.

Legislative Breakfast

NAMI-NoVA participates as part of the Coalition for Disabled Citizens of Northern Virginia each year to organize a December Legislative Breakfast where Northern Virginia advocates and providers can meet with their legislative contingent and present their legislative agenda. The Coalition comprises representatives from non-profits working on issues of mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse. The breakfast features a keynote speaker from the state legislature or a state agency. Awards honoring service to the mental disability community are presented to a mental health professional chosen by consumers, and to an official and an advocate from the community chosen by the Coalition.

Northern Virginia Regional Planning Partnership (NVRPP)

The NVRPP is part of a state effort led by the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services (DMHMRSAS). The initial purpose is to transform the public mental health system from a concentration on treatment in hospitals to treatment in the community using Recovery principles which involve consumers and families in an individual’s treatment planning. The president of NAMI-NoVA and our Arlington and Prince William coordinators sit on the Regional Partnership Steering Committee formed for this purpose.

The Partnership has initiated several Work Groups that NAMI-NoVA participates in via their directors and members, both consumers and family members. Regional Work Groups include Mental Health, Private Psychiatric Hospitals, Forensics, and Co-Occurring Disorders. At the state level, we participate in the Forensic Special Populations Work Group led by Dr. Jim Morris, DMHMRSAS Director of Forensic Services. The group targets the problems associated with the jailing of people with mental illness. Participants include DMHMRSAS clinical personnel, jail administrators, lawyers, hospital administrators, and advocates.

Jail Diversion Programs

NAMI-NoVA has been working with city and county inter-agency work groups to provide more understanding treatment of people with mental illness when their illness causes them to come into contact with law enforcement and the criminal justice system.

Community Service Board participation

CSB citizen advisory board affiliations

NAMI-NoVA members serve as board members of the Fairfax/Falls Church, Arlington, and Alexandria Community Services Board (CSB) citizen advisory boards. The president of NAMI-NoVA traditionally sits as an associate member of the Fairfax/Falls Church CSB’s Mental Health Committee. In addition to formal ties, NAMI-NoVA members frequently attend CSB board meetings either to advocate for specific issues or to monitor activities of the agency.

NAMI-NoVA includes members from all cities and counties in the region and has developed a strong working relationship with the CSBs in Fairfax/Falls Church and Arlington Counties. One side benefit of the regional partnership effort was that NAMI-NoVA ties to other CSBs in the region have been strengthened and will continue to flourish as we grow into these augmented relationships with Prince William County and Alexandria CSBs.

NVMHI Advisory Council

Several NAMI-NoVA members belong to the NVMHI Advisory Council. The Council’s purpose is to ensure the maximum comfort and support possible to patients at the Institute. The board raises money for incidentals and events for patients, such as the annual Holiday Party, solicits gifts of clothing and books, and listens to and responds to the thoughts and concerns of patient representatives to the monthly Council meetings. The council regularly invites special guests such as sheriff’s deputies to respond to issues raised by patient community organizations.

Treasurer’s Report

The annual treasurer’s report will be available at the Annual Meeting.

NAMI-NoVA-Arlington Activities: June 2005-May 2006

NAMI-Arlington sponsored five advocacy meetings covering Medicare Part D as it affects those needing psychiatric medications, an update on training of Arlington police, an update on Arlington's supportive housing program, on supportive employment and supportive employment for transitioning youths and the Recovery Model: What it is and how it is affecting the delivery of services today.

Members of NAMI-Arlington participated in special Task Forces with the Arlington Public Schools and Human Services Department on improving the educational experience of students with a psychiatric diagnosis (recommendations to be developed by the end of the summer) and on a Mental Health Criminal Justice Task Force that developed a Citizens' Guide on available Mental Health and Substance Abuse services and that is working to put a program of forensic case managers in place to be responsible for anyone in the Arlington Detention Center who has mental illness.

NAMI-Arlington honored St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church and staff members of Clarendon House with its Annual NAMI-Arlington Recognition awards for their efforts to improve the lives of those with mental illness in Arlington.

NAMI-Arlington as part of NAMI-Northern Virginia offered three Family to Family courses: one facilitated by Marshall Epstein and Mike Vopatek, one facilitated by Barbara Buzzell and Jan Macidull, and one facilitated by Betsy Greer and Anne Snider.

NAMI-Arlington was part of the coalition that supported the Arlington Community Services Board request for $1.7 million in new initiatives for those with mental retardation and mental illness and who abuse substances. Many were funded.

NAMI-Arlington was one of two NAMI-Northern Virginia teams teaching Provider Education. The eastern team taught one course to 25 professionals from the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute and the Prince William, Fairfax-Falls Church and Arlington CSBs.

	·	provide local information and referral services
	·	conduct community education by serving on local committees and boards
	·	interact with local professionals
	·	work with local media on stories about mental illness
	·	report on local issues and needs to their state organization; and
	·	provide support and encouragement to people with brain disorders and promote their full participation as community members.