Lending a helping hand for mental health

By JOSH MONTREUIL, Staff Writer

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization, with more than 1,100 chapters across the country. The nonprofit is dedicated to improving the quality of life for those with mental illness and providing support to their families and friends.

Living with mental illness — whether you have been diagnosed, or a friend, family member or co-worker has been — can be challenging. NAMI gives people in this situation the chance to learn more about relevant medicine and psychiatry, the opportunity to ask others how they manage the problems or issues that may arise, and provides a sympathetic network for those grappling with mental health issues.

"We want people to know that there is an organization out there that is supportive of people with mental illness,” said NAMI Coeur d’Alene President Bonnie Wilson. "We're here in the community, and we've been here here for quite some time."

As a nationwide organization, NAMI has existed since 1979. It began in Wisconsin, the creation of two mothers with adult sons diagnosed with schizophrenia. Frustrated by the treatment of those living with mental illness and the lack of services available, they formed an advocacy group with others that shared their concerns. The first meeting attracted more attendees than expected, and the group quickly grew into the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

However, the Coeur d’Alene affiliate actually predates the official founding of NAMI. Years before, residents Joyce and Ted Hughett and Agnes and Bill Harger started a group supporting people that have a family member with mental illness. As NAMI grew larger, this local group joined with the national organization; and over time, the local emphasis shifted from family members to those living with mental illness themselves.

NAMI’s local affiliate uses a variety of means to support those with mental illness and combat stigma in the community. On the second Tuesday of each month, the group holds a meeting at ACES Community Services (410 E. Harrison, across from Goodwill) from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Meetings are free and open to the entire community. A speaker or video presentation takes up the first hour, with topics that include medications and their effects, how to help family members cope with problems related to mental illness, developments in rehabilitative services, and the status of current community resources.

The meeting’s second hour is a generalized support group, where participants have a chance to talk to the group about issues they are having, or just to vent the feelings they need to express. The support group is a non-judgemental venue where individuals with mental illness — or their families — can find ways to cope by sharing with others in the same situation.

Connection, another support group, is held every Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the United Way Conference Room at 501 Lakeside in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Those living with mental illness learn from each other’s experiences, share coping strategies, and offer encouragement and understanding to each other.

Wilson praised United Way for offering their spaces free to NAMI Coeur d’Alene.

"They're kind enough to let us use it free of charge,” she said, “and ACES is the same way."

Another spot where NAMI Coeur d’Alene cooperates with another nonprofit is at the St. Vincent de Paul HELP Center (201 E. Harrison Avenue).On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., a NAMI volunteer provides information about mental health, as well as support for visitors needing to talk.

Another program aims to spread awareness of mental illness in the community, and to erase its negative perception in the public eye.

“Part of our group's greatest wish is to get rid of stigma. In the news right now, it's the negative that gets publicized as far as individuals with mental illness. That is a big issue in society."

As a means to counteract that stigma, the organization’s outreach program, In Our Own Voice, brings individuals who have been diagnosed with a major mental illness to speak with community groups about their condition and the recovery process.

"People with mental illness do hour-long presentations on what it's like to actually live with mental illness, how they have been able to get stable with their illness and learn to deal with it,” said WIlson. “They have their ups and downs, their symptoms of the illness, but they're able to live with it outside of a hospital."

In Our Own Voice speakers can make presentations to any group, routinely speaking to students in nursing and social work courses at North Idaho College. Wilson said that the group has also shared their stories at area churches and classrooms in Lakeland School District.

Starting in spring, NAMI will offer a free comprehensive 12-week course called Family to Family on Saturdays. Aimed at family members who have relatives with mental illness, the course focuses on various mental illnesses and their clinical treatment, and teaches the knowledge and skills families need to cope more effectively.

In addition to the current programs and the returning Family to Family program, Wilson also hopes to incorporate a course called Mental First Aid. As currently taught at North Idaho College, the course helps train students in dealing with and supporting individuals in crisis on a day-to-day basis. Students also learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies to help in crisis and non-crisis scenarios, and where to turn for help.

NAMI Coeur d’Alene aims to help those with mental illness improve their quality of life, and that is no less the case when those in the community slip up. In Kootenai County, some criminal offenders with mental illness have the option of entering Judge John Mitchell’s Mental Health Court, rather than go to jail or prison.

“They realize that, oftentimes, the reason these people have offended is related to their mental illness,” said Wilson. “So instead of sentencing them to jail or prison, they're mandated to go to court.”

Mental Health Court assists offenders to achieve stability as law-abiding citizens, but the program is tough, with a strict schedule of classes, groups and drug tests. It takes a minimum of 14 months to complete Mental Health Court. Upon a participant’s graduation, NAMI Coeur d’Alene is there to show their support.

"We congratulate the Mental Health Court graduates," said Wilson. "We give them a gift certificate to Fred Meyer, congratulate them, and welcome them to our meetings and support groups. It’s congratulations on a job well done, because it's very difficult to get through that program."

NAMI Coeur d’Alene also supports the new Northern Idaho Crisis Center, which opened last month. The center serves adults in need of help with behavioral health or substance-abuse issues in North Idaho. Open 24 hours a day, it allows workers to assess patients and help them access aid during a less-than-24 hour stay in one of 20 beds.

The beds are a crucial reason for Wilson’s support.

"If you feel like you're in crisis, you can go there and not end up in the emergency room, waiting for hours just to be seen,” she said, “oftentimes being told 'there's nothing we can do for you,' and sent away because the hospital didn't have any beds. This should hopefully free people that didn't need to be admitted, that can go there and have more of a family-type open environment, instead of the locked ward of the Behavioral Health Unit."

NAMI Coeur d’Alene relies heavily on the efforts of local members and volunteers. There is no paid staff. Joining the National Alliance on Mental Illness costs $35 a year. For would-be members in financial need or living with a mental illness, the fee is $3. The national organization gives a portion of yearly membership fees back to local branches, but the majority of NAMI Coeur d'Alene's operating budget is funded through grants and donations from individuals and organizations like the 3C's (Cancer and Community Charities), the Women's Gift Alliance, and certain national family foundations.

The organization is in serious need of volunteers with experience in grant writing, as certain sources of funding have lapsed because NAMI Coeur d’Alene currently lacks a grant writer to ply potential donor organizations. Other volunteers are also welcome, as long as they committed to the organization’s mission of ending the stigma around mental illness and improving the quality of life of those who live with it.

For more information about NAMI Coeur d’Alene, visit namicoeurdalene.org, nami.org, or call NAMI’s information helpline at 1(800) 950-6264. NAMI Coeur d’Alene can also be reached at the St. Vincent de Paul HELP Center on Tuesday and Thursday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at (208) 664-3095 ext. 322.