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ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM OUR COMMUNITY

New Support Group for Family members of Children and Adolescents begins April 11th, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.

Nami FDL will begin a new family support group starting Thursday April 11, 2013 specifically for parents, family or care givers of children and adolsecents that have a mental health diagnosis.  This new support group will meet at the same location, and time as the current Family Support  and the Consumer Connections Support groups.   All 3 support groups meet at the Cumming Senior Center next to the Cumming Public Library on Dahlonega Highway on the 2nd Thursday of each month.  A trained support facilitator will lead the group.  

Contribute to our new NAMI FDL Cookbook

Have you heard?  Our affiliate is collecting recipes for a fund raising cookbook.  We plan to complete and have the printed cookbooks ready for the annual NAMI Walk this fall.  We need your favorite recipes now. Submit 3 to 5 of your favorites. Use the link http://www.morriscookbooks.com/dc/tns10/RecipeCollection.pdf to copy a “Recipe Collection Sheet”. If the link doesn't work, try doing a search or copying and pasting into your browser. Mail recipes to Pearl Blackburn at: NAMI Forsyth Dawson Lumpkin P.O. Box 2665 Cumming, GA 3002 Or you can email the recipes to Pearl at pearl.blackburn@gmail.com using the format in the link. Remember to include which Category, the Recipe Title, and Submitted by Name. We may also create additional sections such as: Men, Grilling, or Animal Recipes. If you have any questions or ideas, please contact Pearl directly by email above. Our Cookbook workgroup has formed, and we would like to thank Pearl Blackburn, Susan Gates, Diana Estrada, and Krystyna Csuk for volunteering to meet on Saturdays a few times to organize the recipes and make design decisions. Pearl will be sending further updates and Cookbook activities, so look for more emails with additional information.   New Mental Health Court for the Enotah Judicial Circuit  The Enotah Judicial Circuit, which includes Union, White, Lumpkin and Towns Counties, has a new Mental Health Court. Superior Court Judge Murphy C. Miller, Zell Miller's son, is the driving force and Cathy Ganter from Avita is working as their coordinator. They have patterned the court after the ones in Albany, GA under Judge Stephen Goss and Gainesville, GA under Judge Gosslein. Other Accountability Courts in our affiliate include Bell Forsyth Circuit (Cumming): Drug 2002, DUI 2006, Juvenile Drug 2008 Northeastern Circuit (Dawsonville): Hybrid Drug & DUI 2006 Enotah Circuit: Drug 2002, Family Drug 2008 To see a list of all Georgia Accountability Courts go to http://w2.georgiacourts.org/gac/files/February_20_2012%20GA%20Acc%20Courts%20Directory.pdf    Local Affiliate Members Work at Hope House in Cumming In the fall on a Saturday several members met for the day to work on the downstairs area of Hope House, a group home in Cumming for men who have a serious mental illness. Pearl & Jeff Blackburn, Dolores & Mike Browning, Ovie & Sony Hughie, Faye & Robert Taylor installed carpet and painted the floor of one room. Mari Forquer & Flo Giltman prepared lunch for the group. Karen Carroll, Hope House president, also joined in the fun.   Congratulations Mari Forquer! Congratulations to our FDL member Mari Forquer. She has been nominated for the 2011 NAMI National Hall of Fame for teaching 10 Family-to Family Classes. Thanks for all the hard work and volunteer time ! The New Normal: Actress Claire Danes, "Homeland" and Hollywood's New Take on Mental Illness By Courtney Reyers, NAMI Publications Manager Claire Danes - Stuart Crawford Showtime’s original series Homeland is one of the first TV shows to feature a female protagonist living with bipolar disorder—and one many say isn’t wholly defined by her illness. Golden Globe winner Claire Danes (My So-Called Life, Temple Grandin, Romeo + Juliet) plays CIA officer Carrie Mathison in Showtime’s thriller-drama series based around homeland security, terrorism and politics. The first season, which premiered in 2011, follows Carrie’s efforts to uncover a U.S. Marine who is thought to have been turned while trying to target an Al-Qaeda kingpin while she struggles with (and hides) her mental illness from everyone but her sister. Watch the first episode of Homeland online for free, even if you don’t subscribe to Showtime. The second season of Homeland airs this fall.   "Daddy's Home" a new book that explains a military parent's PTSD to kids   Discussing mental illness with children isn't easy. Author Carolina Nadel has written a book that can help you talk about PTSD with your child.

Forsyth County 2011 CIT Class  

Our second Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training  in Cumming was completed July 18-21, 2011. Several of our State Patrol Officers from Cumming completed CIT in Hall County Dec. 12-16, 2011. The Dec. class was for State Patrol and GBI Officers. Faye Taylor helped facilitate the Cumming and Gainesville classes. The next Cumming class is scheduled for Sept. 24-28, 2012.

CIT is a 40-hour, five day curriculum approved by the Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training (P.O.S.T.) Council taught throughout the US.  The class involves classroom instruction by professionals focusing on behavioral health disorders (mental illness, developmental disabilities, Alzheimer's disease and addictive disease) and law enforcement instructors (trainers) who focus on de-escalation exercises. Our class trainers were Lt. Bill Anastasio, Roswell PD, and Sgt. Angela Cox, Forsyth County SO. All of this was coordinated by local NAMI members. Georgia CIT is funded by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities.

Pilot Mental Health First Aid Class at Emory Johns Creek 

Last year our affiliate sponsored a pilot Mental Health First Aid Class at Emory Johns Creek Hospital. Mental Health First Aid is an interactive 12-hour course that presents an overview of mental illness and substance use disorders and introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems, builds understanding of their impact, and overviews common treatments. Those who took the 12-hour course to certify as Mental Health First Aiders learned a 5-step action plan to help an individual in crisis connect with appropriate professional, peer, social and self-help care. The teachers were Ellyn Jeager and Evan Katz from Mental Health America of Georgia; Flo Giltman  was the class coordinator.

Twelve Members Complete Trainings

A special thank you to twelve of our members who have completed trainings with NAMI GA. Pete Allen, Sony Hughie and Judith Atkins trained to lead NAMI Connection Support Groups on Thursday nights. Ovie Hughie, Kathy Archambault and Faye Taylor trained to be a NAMI Basics teachers. Faye has also gone to St. Louis for a NAMI National training to be a Georgia state trainer for NAMI Basics. Ivonne Alemany, Bill Csuk and Ted Meyer trained to become Family-to-Family teachers. Ovie Hughie and Flo Giltman have trained to be family support group leaders for our Thursday night support groups. Joe LaBranche, a member who is trained as a Vet-to-Vet support facilitator, also completed training to make "In Our Own Voice”presentations. These presentations are given free of charge to community groups. To sign up for a presentation or find out more contact namifdlga@gmail.com

MTV Networks: "A Thin Line"
As part of MTV’s multi-year, award-winning A THIN LINE campaign, the network will launch a new anti-digital discrimination coalition, which will work with MTV to fight bullying and intolerance online.  MTV  will also announce the forthcoming premiere of a poignant new feature film inspired by the true, tragic tale of Abraham Biggs – a 19-year-old who battled bipolar disorder and ultimately webcast his suicide after being egged on by a digital mob. The film will illustrate what can happen when we forget there’s a person on the other side of the screen, and serve as a powerful call to action to fight the spread of digital abuse.  The network plans six new cyberbullying and digital discrimination public service announcements, encouraging bullying bystanders to support their friends, connect victims of digital abuse to resources, and drive home the serious impact typewritten words can have.

Support Our Veterans

Our affiliate is supporting our veterans by encouraging the Vet-to-Vet support group forming at the Cumming VFW Post 9143. Also, the State of Georgia's Paving the Way Home Veteran's Initiative has developed 6 action areas to benefit the many military families in Georgia. Volunteers are required as soon as possible. Want to be part of the solution? Consider volunteering. See Care for the Troops website, www.careforthetroops.org, where the enrollment process for the entire State will occur.

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