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NAMI Florida Peer Conference slated for March 10-12, 2010

Bringing Change 2 Mind: A Holistic Approach to Recovery

A conference for peers from around Florida to share their vision for achieving physical and mental well-being is being hosted by NAMI Florida March 10~12, 2010. The event will be at the Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center, outside of Leesburg, FL.

The conference goal is to provide an opportunity for people diagnosed with a mental illness and/or a substance use disorder to network and learn how to improve their physical and emotional well-being.   Attendees will learn to identify physical and mental health issues, strengthen their abilities to create and direct a personal recovery plan and to better advocate for the services and supports needed to succeed. 

Delivering the keynote address on March 11 will be National NAMI Board Member Clarence Jordan, a well-known motivational speaker who overcame the symptoms of his own mental illness to begin a new career in the mental health field.   Jordan is director of recovery and resiliency services of Tennessee at ValueOptions Behavioral Health Services. He previously was manager of recovery and resiliency for Magellan Health Services of Tennessee and served as a member of the Tennessee Mental Health Planning Council.

Welcoming conference attendees on March 11 and presenting a plenary presentation on March 12 will be David Sofferin, MA, Assistant Secretary for Substance Abuse and Mental Health for the Florida Department of Children & Families.

Prior to joining DCF in late 2009, Sofferin was the acting Deputy Commissioner for Mental Health for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. He also served as the acting Director of Regional Operations for public mental health services in Southwest Georgia, the state regional coordinator for a 41-county behavioral health network in Georgia and CEO of Southwestern State Hospital in Thomasville, GA           

Also presenting on Friday will be Sherry Jenkins Tucker, CPS, ITE, Executive Director of the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network and 2009 recipient of the Clifford Beers Award from Mental Health America. Sherry formerly served as a Behavioral Health Advocate for Legal Aid of West Virginia, and directed the West Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs. She has a master’s degree in counseling, is a Certified Peer Specialist and an internationally recognized WRAP facilitator.

In addition, the conference agenda includes three rounds of concurrent workshops on Thursday, with topics ranging from veterans to peer specialists to health and creativity.

The conference fee of $150 includes accommodations for two nights in one of the Lake Yale Conference Center hotels and all meals from dinner on Wednesday, March 10 through lunch on Friday, March 12.  

Florida NAMI has a limited number of scholarships available for peers. These will be awarded on a first-come, first- served basis. To make it possible for more people to attend the conference, NAMI is inviting donors to underwrite the cost of an individual scholarship or contribute the conference scholarship fund. To sponsor a scholarship or make a donation, contact the NAMI Florida office at 850-671-4445 for details.

More details about the conference are in the conference brochure. To download a copy of the brochure, please scroll down to "Related Files" at the bottom of this page and download the file Peer Conference Brochure. You can also separately download a copy of the registration form that can be filled in and e-mailed back to NAMI.

NAMI Florida adopts policy priorities for 2010 Legislative Session

A five-point list of public policy priorities for the 2010 Legislative Session was approved October 3 by the NAMI Florida Board of Directors at its annual meeting.

The policy statements adopted by the board focus on five critical areas that impact the lives of adults and children living with mental illnesses and the community as a whole, according to Michele Saunders, NAMI public policy chair.  “We’ve had a tendency in the past to change priorities from year to year, rather than building a case for our priorities from year to year,” she said.  The five priorities are:

Funding the System of Care:  NAMI Florida advocates for effective care for those suffering from mental illnesses through an adequately funded continuum of prevention, intervention, clinical, and support services.

Children’s Issues:  NAMI Florida strongly believes that the children of Florida who suffer with emotional disorders deserve to have access to a system of care that is responsive to their needs and those of their families and a system of care which promotes prevention and early intervention. 

Criminal and Juvenile Justice Issues:  NAMI Florida strongly supports justice system diversions that will help keep adults and juveniles who have a mental illness or serious emotional disorder out of the criminal justice system when possible; and provide them the interventions, treatments, and supports that foster recovery. 

Parity:  NAMI Florida strongly supports the passage of insurance parity for those with mental illnesses.  Insurance parity is fair and can save tax dollars by decreasing overall medical costs and reducing the number of people forced to seek publicly-funded treatment. 

Housing:  NAMI Florida knows that housing is essential to the recovery of individuals living with mental illnesses.  Access to safe and affordable housing has been shown to increase treatment success and help these individuals avoid such settings as jails, detoxification centers and crisis units, and hospitals.

A printable version of the public policy priorities can be downloaded by clicking on the link in the Related Files section at the bottom of this page.

Advocates need to spread message of hope and recovery, says state mental health chief

About 50 people attended the NAMI Florida annual meeting October 2 to hear updates on state policy developments, inspirational talks and to applaud as their colleagues and fellow members were recognized with a series of awards.

Keynote speaker for the annual event was Kate Lyon, PhD, director of the Mental Health Program at the Department of Children & Families.  

Discussing recent developments at DCF, Lyon referred to the longstanding division between substance abuse and mental health treatment programs across the state, often to the detriment of those who need services.  She said DCF staff has been “working very hard to change the culture of our state toward one where when you need services for either or both health issues, you receive it.”

 “We are also working to create a stronger system of management for mental health and substance abuse treatment dollars than the department has traditionally been able to offer,” she said. “This new system, as it spreads across the state, will result in a smarter use of dollars, increased quality of services, and less duplication of services within a geographic area.”

Lyon noted that state officials, advocates and others have tended to describe the failures of the system in their efforts to inform the public and policymakers of key issues.  “Without meaning to, we have given the impression that this is an area of healthcare without hope and without success,” she said. “There is nothing that is farther from the truth.”

As an example, Lyon pointed to the treatment outcomes for mental illnesses when compared to other health problems.  “Treatment success rates for individuals with schizophrenia are around 60 percent, for individuals with depression, there is a more than 80 percent treatment success rate and if you suffer from panic disorder, your odds of success are 70-90 percent. "

“These rates of success surpass those of other medical conditions, such as heart disease (45-50 percent) and many forms of cancer.  We need to let our folks know that mental health as a health issue can be treated, can be treated well, and, if fully funded, will change the world.” 

Despite the impact of mental illness in this country and across the world, Lyon said mental health treatment is often “the first to be cut and the last to receive new funding.”

“Our job is to educate with hope,” she said.  “We have to make sure folks understand that this health concern is detectible through valid screening instruments, can be assessed reliably, and can be treated with success.  We have to let our law makers, our local, state, and federal funders that supporting mental health and substance abuse services are putting money into a winning healthcare system.”

Florida’s Mental Health System Earns a ‘D’ on NAMI National Report Card

Florida’s mental health system received a “D” in NAMI’s 2009 Grading the State’s report, a state-by-state assessment of the quality of the nation’s public mental health services.   The state’s standing has slipped since the last report in 2006, when Florida earned a grade of C.   

The report notes that while the need for mental health services has grown in Florida, “typically people must be in crisis to secure services.”   As one consequence, the report says the many people who receive little or no treatment enter the state’s criminal justice system when they experience a crisis.

Instead of building more prisons and jails, the report said Florida officials should focus on expanding “urgently needed” comprehensive mental health services.

There have been some positive developments, the report noted.  Among those cited was Florida’s Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Reinvestment Act program, which provides state matching grants to counties to help them implement or expand programs designed to divert people with mental illnesses from jails and prisons.

“In addition, the state’s Supreme Court justices have taken the lead in drafting a plan for targeting intensive mental health services to people who are at the greatest risk of criminal justice system involvement.”  (A bill that would have implemented many of the high court’s recommendations failed to pass during the 2009 Legislative Session.)

Other positive innovations mentioned in the report were:

• Expansion of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for law enforcement officers and creation of mental health courts in several judicial circuits
• The peer specialist training and certification program
• A move toward substance abuse and mental health treatment integration

Urgent needs cited by the report were:

• Cultural competence and workforce development plans
• More inpatient psychiatric beds
• Services for underserved populations

While some states are making consistent efforts to improve, the great majority are making little or no progress, according to Grading the States. As in 2006, the nation earned an overall grade of “D.”

“Without a significant commitment from our nation’s leaders—in Washington, among governors, and in state legislatures—state mental health agencies will continue to struggle to provide even minimally adequate services to people living with serious mental illnesses,” the report concludes.  You can download a copy of the full report or get a state report by clicking on this link.  You can select the state you want from the map.

Contact Us

NAMI Florida
316 E. Park Ave Tallahassee, Florida 32301
(850) 671-4445, or toll-free (877) 626-4352
Fax: (850) 671-5272
Email: jevans9062@aol.com

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