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NAMI CLASSES - IOWA

Family-to-Family

Family-to-Family is a free 12-week course specifically for family members and significant others of persons with severe and persistent mental illnesses.  Trained NAMI IOWA volunteer family members teach each 2 1/2 hour session.  Although the course is not diagnosis-specific, it covers information about schizophrenia, mood disorders (bipolar disorder and major depression), panic disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder.  The curriculum is written by an experienced family member who is a mental health professional and is regularly updated.  It includes:

• symptoms and treatments of mental illnesses,
• brain biology,
• medications,
• recovery, and
• rehabilitation.

Coping skills, self-care, communication skills, problem-solving and advocacy strategies are also vital elements.  Family members achieve greater knowledge, self-efficacy, improved well-being, empowerment, and self-esteem.

Iowa Family-to-Family Coordinator:

A new program will begin in Linn County starting on 9/1/09.  It will be held from 6:30-9:00pm on Tuesdays at St. Pius Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids.  Pre-registration is required.  Please call the NAMI Linn County Resource Line at 221-1184 or e-mail us atnami-lc@hotmail.com to register or for additional information. 

Peer-to-Peer

Peer-to-Peer is a unique, experiential learning program for people with any serious mental illness who are interested in establishing and maintaining their wellness and recovery.  The course includes:

• 9 two-hour units taught by a team of 3 trained “Mentors” who are personally experienced at living well with mental illness.
  
• Mentors are trained in weekend-long training sessions, supplied with teaching manuals, and are paid a stipend for each course they teach.
  
• Participants come away from the course with a binder of hand-out materials, as well as many other tangible resources: an advance directive; a “relapse prevention plan” to help identify tell-tale feelings, thoughts, behavior, or events that may warn of impending relapse and to organize for intervention; mindfulness exercises to help focus and calm thinking; and survival skills for working with providers and the general public.

A new program will begin in Scott County on 10/8/09.  It will run from 6-8pm at the Eastern Iowa Community College District - Urban Center.  Call 800-462-3255 to register (Course #73083).  Contact NAMI-Scott County for more information at 563-322-8870.

Visions for Tomorrow

Visions for Tomorrow is an educational program for people who are raising children and adolescents who have behavioral disorders or mental illness.  The curriculum is designed to help parents, foster parents and other caregivers face the day-to-day challenges, learn the facts about various childhood brain disorders, and find support, resources, and strategies to cope.  The 12 workshops of the parent course are usually taught over a series of 8 class sessions.  There is no charge to attend VFT classes or workshops and curriculum materials are provided by NAMI IOWA.

UPCOMING VOLUNTEER TEACHERS TRAINING: Attend either September 18-20 or November 13-15, 2009 in Des Moines.  The training begins at 6:00pm on Friday and ends by 2:00pm on Sunday. 

In Our Own Voice

In Our Own Voice (IOOV) is a unique public education program developed by NAMI, in which 2 trained consumer speakers share compelling personal stories about living with mental illness and achieving recovery.  The program was started with a grant from Eli Lily and Company.  IOOV is an opportunity for those who have struggled with mental illness to gain confidence and to share their individual experiences of recovery and transformation.  IOOV presentations are given to consumer groups, students, law enforcement officials, educators, providers, faith community members, politicians, professionals, inmates, and interested civic groups.  All presentations are offered free of charge.

No classes are currently offered in Iowa.

Provider Programs

Provider Program is a 10-week course for mental health professionals of public and private agencies who work directly with individuals suffering from severe and persistent brain disorders.  Trained NAMI IOWA volunteer family members, consumers and mental health professionals teach as a team each 3-hour session.  The course reflects a new knowledge base – the “lived experiences” of coping with a brain disorder or caring for someone who struggles with this life-long challenge.  The course helps providers realize the hardships that families and consumers endure and appreciate the courage and persistence it takes to find ways to reconstruct lives which must be lived, through no fault of the consumer or family.  It adds a means of teaching the emotional aspects and practical consequences of these illnesses to the academic medical information in the course.  There is a fee for this training.

No classes are currently offered in Iowa.

Parents & Teachers As Allies

NAMI is delighted to announce the expansion of our Parents and Teachers as Allies in-service mental health education program for school professionals.  This 2-hour in-service program focuses on helping school professionals and families within the school community better understand the early warning signs of mental illnesses in children and adolescents and how best to intervene so that youth with mental health treatment needs are linked with services.  It also covers the lived experience of mental illnesses and how schools can best communicate with families about mental health related concerns. 

No classes are currently offered in Iowa.

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