Support & Education

These NAMI programs are designed for consumers:

Mentoring

The NAMI Lewis class has not been scheduled yet for 2017.  We hope to offer it later this summer.  Please check back for an update.

What is NAMI’s Peer-to-Peer Program?

Outreach Video for NAMI’s Peer-to-Peer Recovery Education Course.

Peer-to-Peer is a unique, experiential learning program for people with any serious mental illness who are interested in establishing and maintaining their wellness and recovery.

The course was written by Kathryn Cohan McNulty, a person with a psychiatric disability who is also a former provider and manager in the mental health field and a longtime mutual support group member and facilitator.

An advisory board comprised of NAMI consumer members, in consultation with Joyce Burland, Ph.D., author of the successful NAMI Family-to-Family Education program, helped guide the curriculum’s development.

Since 2005, NAMI’s Peer-to-Peer Recovery Program has been supported by AstraZeneca.

What does the course include?

Peer-to-Peer consists of ten two-hour units and is taught by a team of two trained “Mentors” and a volunteer support person who are personally experienced at living well with mental illness.

Mentors are trained in an intensive three day training session and are supplied with teaching manuals.

Participants come away from the course with a binder of hand-out materials, as well as many other tangible resources: an advance directive; a “relapse prevention plan” to help identify tell-tale feelings, thoughts, behavior, or events that may warn of impending relapse and to organize for intervention; mindfulness exercises to help focus and calm thinking; and survival skills for working with providers and the general public.

For general inquiries, please contact: namieducation@nami.org

NAMI Office: 800-950-6264 or 703-524-7600

Support

Connection Support Group meet twice weekly.  

Daytime Group:   Thursday, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 pm at the United Methodist Church, 506 South Washington Ave., Centralia.  No registration required – just drop in.

Evening Group:  Tuesday, 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at the Senior Center, 2545 N. National Ave., Chehalis, (next to the fairgrounds).  No registration required – just drop in.

NAMI Connection is a recovery support group program for adults living with mental illness that is expanding in communities throughout the country. These groups provide a place that offers respect, understanding, encouragement, and hope.

NAMI Connection groups offer a casual and relaxed approach to sharing the challenges and successes of coping with mental illness. Each group:

• Meets weekly for 90 minutes
• Is offered free of charge
• Follows a flexible structure without an educational format
• Does not recommend or endorse any medications or other medical therapies

All groups are confidential – participants can share as much or as little personal information as they wish.

Meetings will be guided by NAMI Connection’s Principles of Support. 

Who Can Attend A NAMI Connection Recovery Support Group?

Support groups are open to all adults with mental illness, regardless of diagnosis.  Participants should feel welcome to drop by and share feelings, difficulties, or successes.

Outreach

If You Would Like To Schedule A Presentation For Your Organization, Please Contact Sherry Palmer.  Namilewiscountywa@Gmail.Com

What is IOOV?

The In Our Own Voice program and its impact on participant’s lives… in their own voice.

In Our Own Voice (IOOV) is a unique public education program developed by NAMI, in which two trained consumer speakers share compelling personal stories about living with mental illness and achieving recovery.

The program was started with a grant from Eli Lily and Company.

IOOV is an opportunity for those who have struggled with mental illness to gain confidence and to share their individual experiences of recovery and transformation.

Throughout the IOOV presentation, audience members are encouraged to offer feedback and ask questions. Audience participation is an important aspect of IOOV because the more audience members become involved, the closer they come to understanding what it is like to live with a mental illness and stay in recovery.

IOOV presentations are given to consumer groups, students, law enforcement officials, educators, providers, faith community members, politicians, professionals, inmates, and interested civic groups.

All presentations are offered free of charge.

Groups or organizations interested in seeing a presentation may request that one be given in their area through their state or local affiliate.

The goals of IOOV are to meet the need for consumer- run initiatives, to set a standard for quality education about mental illness from those who have been there, to offer genuine work opportunities, to encourage self-confidence and self-esteem in presenters, and to focus on recovery and the message of hope.

Anyone familiar with mental illness knows that recovery is not a singular event, but a multi-dimensional, multi-linear journey characterized more by the mindset of the one taking it than by his or her condition at any given moment along the way.

Understanding recovery as having several dimensions makes its uneven course easier to accept. Much as we don’t blame the cancer patient for dying of invasive tumors, we can’t condemn a consumer whose symptoms overtake his or her best efforts to manage illness.

Recovery is the point in someone’s illness in which the illness is no longer the first and foremost part of his or her life, no longer the essence of all his or her existence.

Ultimately, recovery is about attitude and making the effort.

What is NAMI Provider Education?

The NAMI Provider Education Program is a 5-week course that presents a penetrating, subjective view of family and consumer experiences with serious mental illness to line staff at public agencies who work directly with people experiencing severe and persistent mental illnesses.

The course helps providers realize the hardships that families and consumers face and appreciate the courage and persistence it takes to live with and recover from mental illness.

How is the Provider Education course unique?

The Provider Course emphasizes the involvement of consumers and family members as faculty in provider-staff training. The teaching team consists of five people:

• Two family members trained as Family-to-Family Education Program teachers;
• Two consumers who are knowledgeable about their own mental illness, have a supportive relationship with their families, and are dedicated to the process of recovery; and
• A mental health professional who is also a family member or consumer.

Few teaching programs employ consumers in this kind of sustained training effort in which they are paid to participate on a teaching team as they present a 5-week course.

The course reflects a new knowledge base — the “lived experiences” of people coping with a mental illness or caring for someone who lives with a mental illness. Including this deeply personal perspective creates an appreciable difference in the program’s content. It adds a means of teaching the emotional aspects and practical consequences of these illnesses to the academic medical information in the course.

NAMI FaithNet

NAMI FaithNet is a network composed of members and friends of NAMI. It was established for the purposes of:

• Facilitating the development within the faith community of a non-threatening, supportive environment for those with mental illness and their families
• Pointing out the value of one’s spirituality in the recovery process from mental illness and the need for spiritual strength for those who are caretakers.
• Educating clergy and faith communities concerning mental illness and
• Encouraging advocacy of the faith community to bring about hope and help for all who are affected by mental illness.

NAMI Hearts and Minds

The NAMI Hearts & Minds program is an online, interactive, educational initiative promoting the idea of wellness in both mind and body. Wellness is an ongoing process of learning how to make choices that support a more successful, healthy life.

Engaging in a wellness effort can make a huge difference in the quality of your life. One study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that taking the wellness approach can result in a 17 percent decline in total medical visits and a 35 percent decline in medical visits for minor illnesses.

Wellness is about the individual; you can decide what parts of your life you would like to change and you can determine your own success.

Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid is a groundbreaking public education program that  helps the public identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Mental Health First Aid USA is managed, operated, and disseminated by three national authorities — the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Mental Health First Aid is offered in the form of an interactive 12-hour course that presents an overview of mental illness and substance use disorders in the U.S. and introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems, builds understanding of their impact, and overviews common treatments. Those who take the 12-hour course to certify as Mental Health First Aiders learn a 5-step action plan encompassing the skills, resources and knowledge to help an individual in crisis connect with appropriate professional, peer, social, and self-help care.

Active and retired members of the armed forces do not necessarily have to go through the VA to get assistance for PTSD and other related issues.

Resources

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
To speak confidentially with a Vet Center Counselor at any time around the clock call:

877-WAR-VETS (927-8387)

Programs

NAMI partner programs like Army One Source and Make the Connection provide much-needed help for veterans and for those who treat them and their families.NAMI’s Veteran Resources Page

Make the Connection, The U.S. Government’s resource guide for veterans.

College Students

NAMI on Campus provides information and resources to support students living with mental health conditions and to empower them to take action on their campuses. This site also includes materials to help colleges in improving the academic and social experience of their students by addressing the mental health needs of all students. For more information, click here.