August 2010 -
News
From NAMI National Conference
On June 29, NAMI BA Board
member Carol Ziolo and I joined eight other area NAMI
members as the Illinois delegation to the NAMI National
Conference in Washington DC. The conference ran
through July 3, and some of the Illinois delegates stayed
through the Fourth of July and joined the celebrations on
the Mall. I didn’t stay, but the people who did reported
that they had a marvelous time – music, bands, singing and
wonderful
fireworks over the Capitol.
At the conference there
were numerous breakout sessions on a variety of mental
health topics.
Read more about this
conference.
July 2010 -
Notes from the Mental Health Courts Conference
On June 8, NAMI BA Board
member Carol Ziolo and I had the opportunity to attend the
Mental Health Courts Conference, sponsored by the Illinois
Mental Health Courts Association, at the College of DuPage.
The good news coming out of
the conference is that as mental health courts are expanding
across the state, mental health courts are beginning to
provide a real opportunity to improve mental health care in
Illinois. The bad news is that judges in
mental health courts are facing the same problems that many
of us face – lack of adequate funding for mental health
resources.
Read more about this
conference.
June 2010 -
Arlington Heights Turns Its Back on Supportive Housing
On Monday May 17, the
Arlington Heights Village Board said “no” to supportive
housing for individuals with mental illness. By a 4-3 vote
the trustees rejected a request for the zoning necessary for
a project initiated by the North/Northwest Suburban Task
Force on Supportive Housing for Individuals with Mental
Illness to proceed.
Click here for
more details on Supportive Housing in Arlington
Heights.
May 2010 -
Is
Schizophrenia Inherited?
As I wrote in my column
last month, I have been listening to a series of Teaching
Company lectures, Biology and Human Behavior: The
Neurological Origins of Individuality, by Professor Robert
Sapolsky at Stanford University.
Sapolsky discusses
schizophrenia in several of the lectures. In the most recent
lecture I listened to, he looks at whether schizophrenia is
caused by heredity or environment. The answer is yes.
Read more about these
lectures.
April 2010 -
Schizophrenia and Parkinson’s Disease
Recently my wife and I have taken to listening to CDs from
the Teaching Company, a group that provides topnotch lecture
series from renowned university professors on a wide variety
of topics. They’re available online to purchase and public
libraries have many of them.
Most of the lectures are 30 minutes long, perfect for
listening in the car. We’ve found them to be a great way to
pass the time on long road trips.
The most recent one we listened to – and we’re still not
finished with it – is Biology and Human Behavior: The
Neurological Origins of Individuality, a series of 24
lectures by Professor Robert Sapolsky at Stanford
University.
March 2010 -
Off to a Great Start
NAMI BA
is off to a great start in 2010: We have
two Family to Family classes up and running. We are training
more support group leaders and Family-to-Family teachers. We
are starting weekly Connections and family support groups.
We had a great movie night in January and will have another
March 8. In addition, we began a quarterly regular-mail
newsletter for members.
None of this would have been possible without the help and
hard work of the many F2F teachers, facilitators, writers,
phone callers and schedulers, board members and volunteers.
NAMI is making a real difference in the lives of
people with mental illness and their families.
Thank you to everyone who has made this possible.
