| In This Issue |
| Who We Are |
NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation's foremost grassroots mental health organization. We are dedicated to improving the lives of people living with serious brain disorders that cause mental illness and to improving the lives of their families. Founded in 1979, NAMI is active in all 50 states, Canada, and Mexico with over 1100 local chapters across the country. Our mission is one of education, support, self help, advocacy and research.
NAMI Barrington Area is a new NAMI chapter located in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. We are a dedicated group of people serving Barrington and nearby suburbs hoping to help you or someone you love on the path to recovery from mental illness. Call us at 847-496-1415.
About NAMI Barrington area chapter
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October Events
Saturday, October 2, 2:00p.m. Erasing the Distance's "Falling Petals" Performance addresses mental health issues and suicide as they affect the Asian-American community. At Theater "Stage 773" 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. Free!
October 3 through 9, 2010. Mental Health Awareness Week. This year's theme is "Changing Attitudes, Changing Lives."
Monday, October 4 - Friday October 8. AbilityLinks is hosting a virtual job fair. This online recruiting event will be accessible 24 hours a day and is free to both job seekers and employers. Register online.
Tuesday, October 5, National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding. The prayers and actions of both faith communities and secular organizations (including NAMI, National Mental Health Association, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation, Anxiety Disorders Association of America, etc.) are needed to restore mental wellness in America.
Wednesday, October 6, noon, Chicago Mental Health Rally at James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph, Chicago.
Wednesday, October 6, 7-8:30 p.m. The NAMI Criminal Justice Action Committee, part of NAMI BA, meets the first Wednesday of every month, and we'd love to have your help and support. We meet at the Alexian Center for Mental Health, 3350 Salt Creek Lane-Suite #114, Arlington Heights. For more information, email Joseph M. Jason or phone him at (847) 537-3009. Help us make a difference.
Wednesday, October 6, NAMI Northwest Suburban Lou Malnati's Pizza Dinner Fundraiser. The dinner features all-you-can-eat Lou Malnati's pizza, pasta, salad, dessert and beverage. Dinner tickets may be purchased at the door for $25 for adults and $10 for children under the age of eleven. There will door prizes and raffle prizes. Raffle tickets are $1 each or $10 for a dozen. To purchase tickets in advance or for more information, please call 847-899-0195 or email naminwsub@aol.com. At Lou Malnati's at 85 S. Buffalo Grove Rd, the corner of Buffalo Grove Rd. and Lake Cook Rd. in Buffalo Grove.
Saturday, October 8 - Saturday, October 30. EVERYONE MATTERS...an exhibit celebrating personal healing and empowerment. Come celebrate the original artwork of artists and others recovering from mental illness in this month-long exhibit sponsored by the Behavioral Health Task Force of the Greater
Humboldt Park Community Of Wellness. Free! At the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, 3015 West Division, Chicago. Community reception: Friday, October 8, 5:30p.m. to 8:30p.m. For more information, contact: juanaballesteros@hotmail.com.
Saturday, October 9, 9a.m. NAMI DKK 5k Run For Mental Health in Batavia, IL. $25 entry fee includes race shirt. Fee waived for meeting fundraising goals. Register online, contact INFO@NAMI5K.COM with questions.
Saturday, October 9, 9a.m. - 4p.m. F.A.M.I.L.I.E.S. (Families And Mental Illness Learning and Inspiring through Education and Support ) Symposium on Learning Inspiring Education & Support. Free, registration required. At Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, 3815 Highland Avenue, Downers Grove. Call Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital at (800) 323-8622.
Wednesday, October 13, 7:30pm. The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance presents Mood Disorders in Adolescents-Depression and Bipolar Disorder with Steven R. Howard, LCSW, ACSW, Mental Health Clinician for Adolescents at Northwest Community Hospital. At First United Methodist Church, 1903 E. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights. No charge. No reservation needed. Call Leah Nakamura at (847) 541-7754 with any questions.
Friday - Sunday, October 15 - 17. NAMI Illinois Educational Conference: Learning Together - Changing Minds. A very interesting program this year, including a keynote by Dr. Joyce Burland, the author of the Family to Family course. At the Embassy Suites & Conference Center, Peoria. Registration required.
Wednesday, October 27, 7:00p.m. NAMI Northwest Suburban invites you to hear Scott Burgess, Director of Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health, speak on Catholic Charities Supportive Housing in the Northwest Suburbs. At the Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health, 3350 Salt Creek Lane, Suite 114, Arlington Hts. For more information email naminwsub@aol.com or phone 847-899-0195.
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November Events
Wednesday, November 3, 7-8:30 p.m. The NAMI Criminal Justice Action Committee, part of NAMI BA, meets the first Wednesday of every month, and we'd love to have your help and support. We meet at the Alexian Center for Mental Health, 3350 Salt Creek Lane-Suite #114, Arlington Heights. For more information, email Joseph M. Jason or phone him at (847) 537-3009. Help us make a difference.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010 8:00am to 4:00pm: Suburban-Chicago Interfaith Mental Health Coalition Conference
Mental Health Needs of Your Faith Community, How to Recognize, Respond, and Refer. At Second Baptist Church in Elgin. $30 fee, registration required. For more details and registration form, go to www.scimc.org. For more information call Bob Skrocki at (630) 682-7979 ext 7986, or e-mail him at bskrocki@dupagehealth.org.
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Area Support Groups
You may find that a support group can be very helpful, especially if you, a partner, friend or family member is going through a crisis. A very large number of groups meet in our area for consumers as well as family members and friends.
Each month, we publish a list of support groups that you can attend, generally at no charge and with no need to make a reservation. You can access that list in a printable format here.
We would also like to invite you to the groups hosted by our own chapter, NAMI Barrington Area. This month we will offer a NAMI Connections group for consumers and a family support group every Thursday at Northwest Community Hospital at 7 p.m. (call Nora at 847-899- -6264 for more information). We will also hold a family group on Monday, October 11 at the Barrington Area Library (call Mary at 847-381-6919 or Trowby at 847-382-6015). |
NAMI Connections in the Trib
How do you feel comfortable at social gatherings when everyone there knows you tried to kill yourself? How do you handle your illness when your child has it, too?
According to Jim Bina, interviewed not long ago by the Chicago Tribune, a NAMI Connections support group can be a big help with questions like these. "A doctor can read about it, but he doesn't know it firsthand," Bina said. "Here, they get it...They know exactly what you're talking about."
"For those who have lived the experience, it empowers (them) to really be the driving force for change," said Pat Doyle of NAMI DuPage, which organizes the group. "Where those voices were silenced in the past, they're now being heard."
Read more about Connections in the Chicago Tribune
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Family to Family
Our Family to Family classes in Barrington and at Northwest Community Hospital are filled to capacity and both off to a great start. As evidenced in our very high in attendance, there is a huge need for this type of education and support with these illnesses.
Both classes reached maximum attendance weeks before the first day of class, so if you are interested in attending our January classes it is not too early to register. Call Maryrose at 847-496-1415
Family to Family, a series of 12 weekly classes structured to help you understand and support individuals with mental disorders while maintaining your own well being, will soon begin.
These NAMI classes are for family members, partners and friends of individuals with serious mental illness. "This course is a wonderful experience," said one student. "It balances basic education and skills-training with emotional support, self care and empowerment."
There is no cost to participate in a Family to Family class, you don't need to be a NAMI member, and it doesn't matter if you live in a particular chapter's area to attend a class. Just pick out a date and location that's convenient. Please note, however, that registration is necessary as class size is limited.
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Two Pieces of Good News
From the President's Desk by Hugh Brady
The first is the progress of the lawsuit Williams vs. Quinn, in which a group of housing advocates filed suit over the State of Illinois' practice of confining people with mental illness to special nursing homes. The State
has agreed to an out of court settlement and will move 5,000 people out of these homes into community based housing over the next five years.
The second concerns the Housing Task force, a community group supported by NAMI BA and four other area NAMI chapters, that is working to build a 30 unit permanent supportive housing apartment for people with mental illness in Arlington Heights. Early in September the Task Force's developer was awarded $8.4 million in tax credit funding.
So far the Task Force/Daveri group has had a series of successes but one big setback, a failure to win final village approval prompted by a large and angry crowd of NIMBY's ("not in my back yard"). The group has a site, rent subsidies and financing, but is tweaking the proposal hoping to meet the Village Trustees' stated objections.
Learn more about these issues and how you can help.
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Some Bad and Good News
Research Update by Hugh Brady
First the bad news. A study reported in the September 15 issues of the American Journal of Psychiatry concludes that the stigma surrounding mental illness has not diminished despite decades of effort to spread the word that mental illnesses are biologically based brain disorders and not matters of weak will or poor moral character.
The researchers found that two-thirds or more of the public attributed mental illness to neurobiological causes, up from about half in 1996. There was also a roughly 10 percentage point increase in people advocating psychiatric treatment for people with mental illness. The bad news is that there was no decrease in the stigma, but rather evidence to indicate that the more people understood mental illness as a biologically based brain disorder, the more likely they were to fear people with mental illness and to want to stay apart from them. The researchers also found an increase in the public's fear that people with mental illness were likely to be violent.
But there's also good news: A recent article in Scientific American Mind looks at some amazing research in brain biology. Using sophisticated brain imaging techniques and high tech methods of DNA identification, the scientists have been able to make an atlas of the human brain showing which genes are activated in which brain cells, and therefore which genes are activated during different mental processes.
This is a big step in understanding the biology of mental illnesses and in predicting new medication's therapeutic effects. The atlas is not yet complete but is already yielding exciting results in such areas as autism, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
Learn more - read our October Research Update
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Illinois Budget Cuts Hit Mental Health
Legislative Alert - Part I by Hugh Brady
The news from Springfield continues to be bad for Illinois' crumbling public mental health system. The State is in the process of implementing deep cuts in the non-Medicaid portion of our mental health services system, and so non-Medicaid services will be rationed. A person who does not have Medicaid will be limited to the following:
Psychiatry 2 hours per year
Prescription drug mgmt 4 hours/year (with a nurse, not a doctor)
Case management 4 hours per year
In addition late payments are forcing community mental health centers to deny services to many in need. In July and August, local community mental health centers turned away more than 1,000 people who needed mental health services. That number is expected to grow in the coming months.
Those late payments have forced many community mental health centers to eat into their cash reserves, a process that cannot go on long without forcing some to go under. Indeed, the Beardstown/Green County community mental health center recently did just that. It closed its doors and laid off all its employees. Gone.
And the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association (CBHA) warns that as many as 70 others may face the same future.
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Better News from Washington
Legislative Alert - Part II by Hugh Brady
Fortunately the news from Washington DC is better. During the past year the US Congress passed many measures that will greatly help mental health care in America:
Here is a partial list:
--Funds added to Medicaid
--Health Reform Improves Mental Health Coverage
--Fair Pay Law Becomes Fairer
--Disability Added to Hate Crimes Law
--Supportive Housing Expansion Passes House
--House Approves Standards for Teens' Residential Centers
--Limits Proposed for Restraint and Seclusion of Students
Learn more: see the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law website
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Criminal Justice Action Committee News
by Joseph M. Jason
We're starting to make some real progress on the Criminal Justice Committee, and we hope you will join us!
We now have a Facebook page and we'd like your input on its content!
We have a petition we'd like you to sign asking that the Illinois Department of Corrections reduce the exorbitant and often prohibitive costs of prison phone calls in Illinois.
We are meeting the the first Wednesday of every month at the Alexian Center for Mental Health, 3350 Salt Creek Lane-Suite #114, Arlington Heights. Can you join us?
Read the Committee's news report for October, email Joseph M. Jason or phone him at (847) 537-3009. Help us make a difference.
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Mental Illness from the Inside
Two websites well worth visiting:
Bring Change2 Mind, a project from Glenn Close and Ron Howard, presents short videos of people telling their own stories about mental illness and how they've dealt with it.
It's informative and inspiring. Visit the site.
The online edition of the New York Times includes an excellent series, "Patient Voices," with articles based on first person interviews and audio clips of the interviews as well:
Voices of Schizophrenia
Bipolar disorder
Both series are well worth listening to. An A+ for Times reporter Tara Parker-Pope, and to Close and Howard for bringing us these stories.
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Help Wanted: Treasurer
NAMI Barrington Area is always looking for volunteers to help our chapter. Sue Kluk, our Treasurer since NAMI BA began four years ago, is stepping down. She is planning to spend four or five months a year in Florida and so feels she will be unable to devote the time to the job.
So, NAMI BA is looking for a new treasurer. It is not a huge job, but it does require regular attention to keep things from piling up. And you don't have to be a math whiz - if you balance your checkbook each month, you have the accounting skills to do the job. Sue's term of office runs through December, so there is plenty of time for her to show the new treasurer the ropes.
If you'd be willing to give the job a try, and have a rudimentary skills with an Excel spreadsheet, we'd love to have you. Just give Maryrose a call at 847-496-1415. Thanks
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Welcome Aboard, Betty!
We have a new Membership Chairperson, Betty Smith. The transition was made this weekend. Barb Kreski has trained Betty and the paperwork has all been transferred.
Betty will be introduced to the board at the next board meeting.
Thank you, Betty!
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Local Hospitals
With Mental Health Serivces
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| Community Mental Health Services
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| Please pass on this newsletter
We hope you'll pass this newsletter on to friends, family members or professionals who might get some useful information from it. Even though you don't know if your friend would need this valuable information and support, you never know who may have a co-worker or neighbor who would.
The best way to pass it on is to hit the 'forward email' button at the bottom of this page.
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Join NAMI
We hope you'll join NAMI and support our advocacy for the mentally ill. The cost is only $35 (adult and spouse) or $10 (for consumer). If this cost will create a financial hardship, we have a limited number of open door memberships available at a reduced fee. Please register online if possible or download our paper membership form.
If you don't wish to join right now, but you'd like to receive our free newsletter, simply use the "Join our mailing list" button in the blue column to the right.
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Emergency Numbers
Local police/ambulance: 911
State police: 847-294-4400
Crisis team, Alexian Brothers, Hoffman Estates
(24 hour): 800-432-5005
Illinois state suicide line: 800-784-2433
Ecker Center 24-hour emergency program (Elgin) 847-888-2211
More emergency numbers
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