Post on 01-Jun-2020
transcript
Vol. 16.5 May 2016 www.namiswwa.org
Location & Mailing Address:
5411 E. Mill Plain, Suite 4
Vancouver, WA 98661
Tel: (360) 695-2823
Fax: (360) 823-1088
Clark/Skamania Office
Address
Hours: Monday—Friday
9:00 am—5:00 pm
Location: 109 Allen Street
Kelso, WA 98626
Mailing Address: 5411 E. Mill Plain, Suite 4
Vancouver, WA 98661
Tel: (360) 703-6722
Fax: (360) 823-1088
Cowlitz Office
Hours: Monday—Friday 10:00 am—4:00 pm
360-703-6722
Address
Email: info@namiswwa.org
Website: www.namiswwa.org
Facebook:
facebook.com/namiswwa
Twitter: @namisouthwestwa
Social Media
NAMIWalks! Join us on Sunday, May 15, 2016 by Walking
with us at the NAMIWalks Northwest 5K Event
located at the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade
(near SE Water and SE Main), Portland, OR.
Registration begins at noon and The Walk
begins at 1p.m. Runners are welcome
to begin prior to the Walk start time.
Also, strollers, motorized wheel chairs,
and well-behaved dogs on leashes are
welcome. Help NAMI Southwest Washington
fight stigma associated with mental illness! Our mission is to help all people
affected by mental illness through education, support, and advocacy. We offer glim-
mers of hope to those who feel hopelessness - this includes both those who are
challenged by mental health disorders and their family members.
We offer hope when there is hopelessness.
Help NAMI Southwest Washington raise money to ensure programs and services
continue to be available at no charge. Please Walk with us!
Key items to remember: When registering, select NAMI Southwest Washington as
your affiliate, choose to be a Walker, to join a Team or to be a Team Captain of your
own team. Please note that Walkers are not required to be part of a Team. You can
search for a Team or Team Captain by name: As of 4-25-16 our teams are:
Beacon Health Options Ashley Johnson
Cochran Inc, Angie Cole
Community Health Plan of Washington Stacie Torres
Donnelly Boardwalks, Ann Donnelly
Friends of the Carpenter Michelle Rouse
Garner Family and Friends Brenda Gardner
Gates of Grace Susan Ayres
Grey Matter SW Washington Anna Schepp
La Center United Kalyn Flatt
Lifeline Walks Jared Sanford
NAMI Southwest Washington Suzanne Arnits
Team Trent Brenda Carter
The Wolff Pack Shawn Story
WAMFT – Counselors of SW Washington Jean Miller
Woodland Warriors Tricia Martinez
Questions? Contact Suzanne or call 360-695-2823. suzanne.a@namiswwa.org
To find out how to register, see page 11.
National Alliance on Mental Illness
President Ann Donnelly, Ph.D.
boardpres@namiswwa.org
Vice President Scott Brickley
boardvp@namiswwa.org
Treasurer Rebecca Anderson
treasurer@namiswwa.org
Secretary Michael Altig, LMHC
secretary@namiswwa.org
Board Members Mike Anderson, Cmdr
Ted Engelbrecht
Terry Gertsen
Adam Pithan
Craig Pridemore
Kim Schneiderman
Joe Tran, RPh
Darvin Zimmerman, Judge board@namiswwa.org
Executive Director Peggy McCarthy, MBA peggy.m@namiswwa.org
Executive Assistant
Melinda McLeod
Development/Marketing
Director
Suzanne Arnits
Director of
Mental Health Services
Janet Ragan, MA, LMHC
Daniel Naser-Josue, LMHC
Jean Miller, LMHCA
Newsletter
Cindy Falter
Trained Peer Specialists
Cindy Falter, Clark
John McDonald, Clark
Blaine Hess, Cowlitz
Sharon Smith, Cowlitz
Page 2
Board Members
Office Staff
From the Director’s Desk
Dear Members and Friends,
What a month this has been!!! Integration of services began on the first day of
April and there was scarcely a ripple in services for anyone, it seems. Our Board
members received their training in governance issues, as required by us as a
State licensed mental health agency, we hired a terrific new, very experienced
counselor and will be getting several interns who will be with us for significant pe-
riods of time to help us manage all the people who are coming our way for mental
health services. Janet Ragan, our Director of Mental Health Services, switches
from a 3-day per week job to 5-days on May 2nd.
The Clark County Jail staff has had to face two suicides by prisoners in the past
several months. Our hearts go out to all of the staff and the inmates who were
present and have to deal with the emotions and fallout of these, fortunately, infre-
quent events. Both suicides are being investigated and we will have an article in a
following newsletter about decisions made. In the past several years significant
changes have been made in the physical structures at the jail, however the most
important change has been that jail staff has been receiving training in Crisis In-
tervention. NAMI SW WA helps sponsor this training as well as doing a SEE ME
presentation as part of the 40-hour program. For those who don’t know, NAMIs
across the U.S. sponsor CIT programs in nearly every major community throughout
the U.S. However, CIT in Corrections is fairly new. In fact, our Clark County CIT
training is the only one for Corrections deputies in the Pacific Northwest. This
means that there are often corrections deputies from other sites in WA State as
well as from adjacent states. We have great faith that whatever issues are found
to have been contributing factors to these recent suicides will be corrected or oth-
er procedures will be put in place to once again ensure that family members can
know that their loved ones will be safe in our very overcrowded jail.
NAMI SW WA hosted an important meeting to which all mental health providers in
our SW WA region, along with all legislators from our SW WA region, county com-
missions/councils and other key political figures were invited. The topic of discus-
sion was the almost $30 M in reserves that must be returned to the state from
Southwest Washington Behavioral Health Regional Support Network (SWBH RSN)
as one of their last actions before officially closing before June 30th. See page 10
for more information about this meeting and planned actions.
Our new Mental Health program is up and running. Janet Ragan who has been
with us for over 18 months is the Director of the program. I am particularly grate-
ful for her counseling skills as well as her administrative skills. As a small agency
we all take on multiple tasks and it is wonderful to have her here and willing to do
all that needed and needs to be done as we move forward
in this action. Jean Miller, who has been with us as a coun-
selor for almost a year, is here two days a week, and
our new staff counselor is Dan Naser-Josue who will be
working with us three days a week. (See the short story
about him on page 5.) We will announce new staff addi-
tions as they come on during the summer.
National Alliance on Mental Illness Page 3
Clark
Melinda McLeod
Cowlitz
Vacant
Skamania
Becky Anderson
Scott Brickley
Connection
Support Groups
Eric Johnson
Corrections
H-Pod/Workcenter
Ilse Schuurmans
John McDonald
Josh Vance
Family Support Groups
Kay Roberson
Cindy Falter
STRivE Psychoeducational
Program
Eric Johnson
Ilse Schuurmans
Janine DeBacker
SEE ME
Sandy Frischman
John McDonald
NAMI Walks Coordinator
Suzanne Arnits
Library Coordinator
vacant
Parents and Teachers as Allies
Ending the Silence
Kerilee Stanberry
HomeFront
County Coordinators
Support Groups
Event Coordinator
Vital Support
M ay is Mental Health Awareness
Month!
NAMI SW WA has chosen to focus our energies for Mental Health Awareness
Month on continuing our efforts to build community awareness around trauma
as we and our many partners strive to build a more trauma-informed and trau-
ma-reduced environment in the three counties we serve: Clark, Cowlitz and Ska-
mania.
As part of our activities in May we will host a large number of showings of the
film Paper Tigers at our two offices. If others in the community would like to host
a screening, please contact our office at 360-695-2823 and speak to Melinda.
The almost two-hour film was made at an alternative high school in Walla Walla,
WA. It features students, teachers and administrators who began working to
make the school experience better…for all of them after recognizing that
stressed brains can’t learn. Children under stress from mental health disorders
have particularly difficult times focusing on school objectives. As our work with
ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) helps us understand, almost everyone
has one or more ACEs. It is when the ACEs pile up that we, and our children, are
at risk of developing a mental health disorder. In fact, ACEs play a key role in the
development of other chronic medical conditions such as coronary heart disease
(CHD), diabetes, asthma and other pulmonary conditions, autoimmune disor-
ders, and cancer. The only thing found so far to help reduce the effect of ACEs is
resiliency. During May and for the next few months, we will work collaboratively
with others in our community, especially the ACES Collaborative, to inform the
community about ACEs. This will be followed by a focus on resiliency in late sum-
mer early fall.
Paper Tigers will be shown weekly in our two offices. Check our calendar on our
website for dates and times which will change weekly to ensure that the maxi-
mum number of people can see the film and participate in the discussion that
You can help the National
Alliance on Mental Illness
Southwest Washington
(NAMI SW WA) earn dollars
just by shopping with your
Fred Meyer Rewards Card!
Fred Meyer donates $2.5
million per year to non-
profits in Washington,
based on what charity their
customers tell them to
support.
Here’s how the program
works:
Sign-up for the
Community Rewards
program by linking your
Fred Meyer Rewards
Card number to NAMI at
www.fredmeyer.com/co
mmunityrewards.
You can search for us
by our name NAMI or
by our non-profit
number 87058.
Then every time you
shop and use your
Rewards Card, NAMI
SW WA earns some
change!
You still earn Rewards
Points, Fuel Points, and
Rebates, just as you do
today.
If you do not have a
Rewards Card, stop by
the Customer Service
Desk of any Fred Meyer
store.
For more information,
please visit
www.fredmeyer.com/comm
unityrewards
National Alliance on Mental Illness Page 4
Meet Daniel Naser-Josue
Dan, as he prefers to be called, has just joined the staff of NAMI Southwest Washington
as a mental health counselor. He will be seeing both Medicaid-funded and non-funded
clients at our offices in Vancouver and in Kelso.
Dan received his Master in Counseling from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. He
is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in Washington State. His clinical back-
ground includes service as a mental health clinician at Community Services Northwest
and in a private counseling practice in Vancouver. Dan was born in and grew up in Se-
attle. He served for twenty years as a United States Air Force Officer after which he
spent some time as an Environmental Planner for the State of Washington, Department
of Ecology. He then received his undergraduate degree and a Certificate in Gerontolo-
gy from the University of Washington, and an MBA from the University of Missouri prior
to moving into the social services after which he got his credentials in counseling. This
portion of his life includes volunteer experience with the Bellevue, WA Probation De-
partment, work with the Crisis Clinic of Thurston/Mason Counties and serving as the
Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program for Thurston/Cowlitz Counties. He is also a for-
mer Mental Health Ombudsman for Clark County. Besides his passion for helping
those who suffer from mental illness, he also has a strong interest and affinity for mili-
tary veteran programs, the elderly, and those with Alzheimer’s and other dementia-
Peer Spotlight Disability Benefits
Cindy Falter, our Benefits Specialist for the past several years is changing jobs a bit.
She will still be able to help people with benefits information but will be spending
more of her time in her new role as a Peer Counselor. Fortunately Plan for Work, locat-
ed in Portland, is available to pick up part of her old job. Plan for Work is a program to
help people on Social Security Disability (both SI and SSDI). Plan for Work can help
you understand how working affects housing, food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid.
Some work incentives can only be used once; others can be used many times. In
most instances, you can work and keep all or part of your benefits. Call Plan for Work
to request that intake paper be sent to you. If you don’t know what benefits you are
receiving, Plan for Work can help with this, too.
Community Work Incentive
Plan for Work/Disability Rights Oregon
610 SW Broadway, Suite 200
Portland, Oregon 97205
503-243-2081 or 1-800-452-1694 – FAX 503-243-1738
Our Peer Counselors in Vancouver and Kelso are busy taking lots of educational and
training courses as they prepare for their very important positions. All will be trained in
WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) WHAM (Whole Health Action Management).
Numbers of clients are already working with our Peers to create their own WRAP pro-
grams that helps individuals think about those signs and actions that can serve as
warning signs of a potential crisis, actions to take to get back on track, and items for a
personal tool box that can help each person solve problems.
National Alliance on Mental Illness Page 5
Click the link for
AmazonSmile
http://smile.amazon.com/ch
/91-1065027 and learn how
you can shop and support
NAMI Southwest Washington.
You log-in with the same
username and password for
Amazon, then type in NAMI
Southwest Washington as
the charity you want to sup-
port and select!
Every time you shop, simply
log-in at smile.amazon to
shop instead of AMAZON.
.05% of all of your purchases
will be credited as a dona-
tion.
Thanks to the Health Care Foundation:
Cowlitz County
The National Alliance on Mental Illness Southwest Washington (NAMI SW WA) wishes
to publicly thank the Health Care Foundation Board for their grant award of $30,800
and a Challenge Grant of $5,000. NAMI SW WA will use the awards to expand ser-
vices out of our Kelso office by increasing staff and adding essential technology. The
Kelso office is located at 109 Allen St - 360.703.6722.
NAMI SW WA is dedicated to assisting all individuals affected by mental illness
through education, support, and advocacy. We offer popular NAMI National Signature
Programs: peer-led Connection support groups for individuals challenged from men-
tal health disorders; peer-led Family Support Groups for their family members; peer-
led Family to Family, a twelve-week education course; peer-led Basics, a six-week
course, for families newly experiencing a mental health diagnosis with a child; and
Parents and Teachers as Allies, empowering teachers and school personnel
to make a lasting difference in the lives of their staff. Also, NAMI SW WA’s STRivE, a
psychoeducational program with emphasis on recovery, is offered. NAMI SW WA is
now a Washington State Mental Health Provider Agency. We will provide one-on-one
counseling and peer support services for individuals on Medicaid as well as offering
short term and long term counseling for those that are below a crisis level, are unin-
sured or underinsured or cannot afford their deductible and co-pays. Programs and
services are provided at no cost to the individual using them. Please visit
www.namiswwa.org.
Thanks to the Ben B Cheney Family Foundation
NAMI SW WA in Kelso now sports a new sign over the front door. As the sign was
going up, passers-by were watching carefully. This very welcome funding is also
providing us with a makeover of one of the bathrooms so we can be compliant
with state law by having an accessible bathroom. Work on the bathroom, which
we expected to be complete several weeks ago is taking longer to get underway
than planned. Changing plans and permitting seem to always take longer but we
should be underway and have the work completed by the end of May. We are
very, very grateful to the Foundation for this generous gift and look forward to
working with the Foundation in the future.
NAMI SW WA staff and volunteers also had very productive meetings with Love
Overwhelming and the Cowlitz Free Medical Clinic this past month. All of us are
anticipating partnerships on a number of issues that face our clients and the
Cowlitz Community at large.
We have also received some terrific resumes for people applying for the posi-
tions that have been funded through our grant from the Health Care Foundation.
Interviews will start soon ,and we hope to have hiring completed by the end of
the first week in May. This additional funding is a terrific gift and will enable us
to begin to build a stronger program in Cowlitz County.
National Alliance on Mental Illness Page 6
What is AIR?
AIR (Anonymous. Inspiring.
Relatable) is the new NAMI
app, a free, mobile-based
social network designed for
individuals living with mental
health conditions and their
family members/caregivers.
NAMI AIR is intended to
provide another way for
people to find and give
support, to connect with
others through smart phone
and computer tablet.
AIR encourages users to
anonymously share their
stories and receive
feedback in the form of
social interactions such
as “like”, “hug” and “me
too.”
Also allows users to
access information on
how to get help, learn
more about NAMI and
connect with the NAMI
HelpLine.
Air Facilitates personal
connections with others
who may be going
through, or have been
through, similar
situations. Users are
anonymous but not
alone.
Go to:
https://www.nami.org/Find-
Support/Air-App for more
information
The National Alliance on Mental Illness Southwest Washington (NAMI SW WA) is
dedicated to helping ALL people affected by mental illness through education, sup-
port, and advocacy, whether they are individuals living with a diagnosis, family mem-
bers, or friends and coworkers. NAMI SW WA’s service area is Clark, Cowlitz, and
Skamania counties in Washington State. NAMI is a nonprofit run mostly by volun-
teers. No charge for services.
This is our mission. We need your support
and help to better carry out this mission!
Our Volunteer Needs:
Organize, inventory and label storage room DONE THANKS to Phyllis Chun
Below still needed!!
Inventory office equipment
Organize, inventory and label kitchen
Label office mail boxes and filing cabinets and match keys
Office and bathrooms cleaned weekly
People wanting to be trained in NAMI Signature classes
50 Identical stacking Chairs
Please contact office if you have any
or can purchase and donate them.
Nolo’s Guide To
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permanent disability. This comprehensive and compassionate book covers both
Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. Newly
updated, it shows you how to prove a disability and explains how your age, edu-
cation and work experience affect your chances. Parents will find special infor-
mation about benefits available to children with a disability.
Learn how to:
find the disability criteria for your medical condition
prove the severity of a disability
appeal if you're denied benefits
work part time while keeping your benefits
prepare for a Continuing Disability Review,
and more.
Nolo's Guide to Social Security Disability is written by a former Chief Medical
Consultant for the Social Security Administration whose expert deciphering of
the medical portions of SSA regulations will help you determine whether your
condition will qualify you to receive disability payments, including breathing disa-
bilities, heart disease, mental disorders, speech impairments, cancer, immune
system disorders -- and much more.
Plus, this book is packed with samples of all the major forms you’ll need. Can Buy On www.Nolo.com or where you buy books. Other books include taxes, divorce &wills.
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National Alliance on Mental Illness Page 9
Cowlitz Corner
Our Cowlitz office staff is busy with outreach, classes, and groups. We are planning some important part-
nerships with other organizations in the community.
We will begin interviewing for our office coordinator position and for two peer counselors during the first
week in May. We have stopped taking applications for these positions now but hope to be able to add
more staff in the next months as we expand our mental health services. These staff positions will be in
place quickly and our peers should be off on a running start with additional training and new responsibil-
ities.
We will be tracking numbers of people into our office in Kelso to see if the new sign, shown below, helps
to improve our visibility in the county.
Two peers from Clark County, both trained in Stand Up for Mental Health, presented at the Friday, April
29th Breakfast for Champions held in Cowlitz County. Eric Johnson, a long-time NAMI volunteer, Connec-
tion support group facilitator, and member of the NAMI WA Board of Directors and Molly McNab each
presented their own comedy routine developed in the comedy training and refined over the years.
Drew McDaniel, head of Cowlitz County Crisis made one of his stunning presentations titled Compassion
Fatigue, Beaches, Bacon and Burnout.
National Alliance on Mental Illness Page 10
For all NAMI SWWA
courses
CALL (360) 695-2823
to sign up or visit or
website to register.
Classes fill up quickly
so sign up soon.
SW WA Provider Advocacy for Our Early
Adopter Region
Our SW WA mental health providers were surprised over the past six months or so as
information leaked out regarding large amounts of money that had been withheld,
as part of contractual requirements, by our Regional Support Network. Any unspent
dollars must be returned to the WA State and the federal governments, also as re-
quired by contract agreements. The amount was substantial…close to $30M. Every
agency was thinking of all those projects, programs, and people these dollars could
have helped bolster. We sent letters and talked to our legislators who worked to the
best of their ability to allow SW WA to keep at least a portion of the money; we were
hoping for about 50%, knowing that the state finances are very tight right now. This
failed in a recent vote by the full legislature.
Clark and Skamania counties decided in 2015 to become the only early adopter re-
gion in WA State. This decision was made in part because we will not only be helping
to set the process for integration of services for the entire state of Washington, but
by choosing to become the only early adopter region, certain financial benefits were
to be provided to help us accomplish what has not been done before in Washington.
However, when the entire legislature voted on returning any of the unused funds to
SW WA, they were not thinking of this. As a result, only $1.5M of the unused funds
will remain in SW WA and these are specified for crisis services only.
On Wednesday, April 27th, NAMI SW WA hosted an advocacy meeting at the North
Pacific Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists in Ridgefield, WA. Repre-
sentatives from mental health provider agencies, managed care organizations,
peers, county employees and others welcomed a number of our SW WA legislators,
county council and commission members, and our Clark county lobbyist, Mike Bur-
gess, to join us in a two-hour discussion about next steps. We are very grateful to
Senators Ann Rivers and Annette Cleveland, Representatives Sharon Wylie and Paul
Harris and to Clark Counselor Marc Boldt and Skamania Commissioner Chris Brong
for their active and informative participation and willingness to openly discuss what
happened and how we might approach alternative pathways to funding important
gaps in our mental health programs in our two-county region.
Plans are already underway for follow-up meetings of the provider agencies and of
the larger group. One goal is to review the Needs Assessment results created this
spring by the Community Foundation of SW WA. Possibly using this document as a
guide, our goal is to create a regional plan including costs that will be presented to
the governor and his budget committee in the next several months as they begin to
prepare the 2017-18 budget. We will work closely with our legislators all the way.
NAMI SW WA will have monthly updates on the progress of this activity as part of our
advocacy work. If you have questions or would like to get involved as part of the
work groups or as a peer with a story to tell that will help us to demonstrate effec-
tively why we need what we eventually ask for please call NAMI SW WA at 360-695-
2823 or notify any other community mental health provider of your desire to partici-
pate.
National Alliance on Mental Illness Page 11
NAMI SWWA Help Line
M-F 9am-5pm
(360) 695-2823
(800) 273-TALK Suicide line
(800) 950-NAMI Info line
Mental Health Ombuds: (360) 397-8470
(866) 666-5070
Teen Talk: (after 4pm)
(360) 397-2428
CRISIS LINES
CLARK COUNTY
(360) 696-9560
(800) 626-8137
SKAMANIA
(509) 427-3850
COWLITZ
(360) 425-6064
(800) 803-8833
Resources:
Bulletin Board NAMI Walks - Sunday, May 15th at 1pm. See page 1 for more information.
Paper Tigers Documentary - Join us and watch the documentary Paper Tigers
and stay for discussion once it is done. Paper Tigers chronicles a year in the life
of 6 Lincoln High School students in the community of Walla Walla, WA. The kids
who come to Lincoln have a history of truancy, behavioral problems and
substance abuse. After Lincoln's principal is exposed to research about the
effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), he decides to radically change
the school's approach to discipline. With the aid of diary camera footage, the film
follows six students. From getting into fights, grappling with traumatic events in
their lives, and on the cusp of dropping out, they find healing, support and
academic promise at Lincoln High.
Vancouver Office dates and times:
Thursday, May 13th 5:00 –7:00pm
Tuesday, May 24th 10:30am – 12:30pm
Friday, May 27th 2:00 –4:00pm
Kelso Office:
Thursday, May 19th 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Volunteer Orientations:
Vancouver office: Every last Friday of the month at 3:00 pm
Kelso office: Every last Wednesday of the month at 3:00 pm
A new BASICS class starts on Thursday, May 12th and goes for 6 weeks. Please
call 360-695-2823 to sign up.
Please call 360.695.2823 to sign up for the next Family to Family or Homefront
classes.
Register for NAMIWalks - Visit http://namiswwa.org/namiwalks_northwest/ to
learn how to register, to review frequently asked questions plus much more! If
you or someone you know wants to donate by check or money order instead of
online — this is called offline donations — please mail to NAMI Oregon, 54701 SE
24th Ave Ste E, Portland, OR 97202 and in the reference write for NAMI SW WA
as well as the Team name, if relevant. Offline donations can be turned in on
Walk Day or mailed before or afterwards. On the day of the Walk plan to carpool,
to be dropped off, or to use mass transit. Arrive early if possible.
Feeling Stressed?
Do You Know Your Blood Pressure?
NAMI SW WA Peers in Vancouver and Kelso have been trained to take blood pres-
sures using top-of-the line blood pressure monitors that provide almost fool-proof
readings for accuracy. This training and the Bluetooth-smart devices came through a
partnership with the Healthy Living Collaborative in SW WA. NAMI SW WA will be
checking blood pressures at our classes and groups as well as for individuals coming
in to our office daily. We will record ranges only, with no identification involved. How-
ever, if you have a need to have your blood pressure sent to your primary care pro-
vider (pcp) these cuffs have the ability to do that, possibly saving you a trip to anoth-
er office. This may be especially helpful to all those who have white-coat hyperten-
sion in which your blood pressure increases the minute you walk in to your provider’s
office.
Please help us make this program successful by using our devices on a regular
basis!!
NAMI Southwest Washington
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Vancouver, WA 98661
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National Alliance on Mental Illness
Help
support the
one in four
Americans
who will be
affected by
mental
illness
this year.
Thank you
for being
part of the
team!