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.

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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

5411 E. Mill Plain, Suite 4

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!