National Alliance on Mental Illness
page printed from NAMI Putnam County
 

NAMI Putnam

Putnam County, New York

NAMI Putnam is dedicated to providing support, education, and advocacy to invidviduals and families of all ethnic backgrounds affected by mental illness in Putnam County and its environment.  We come together for a common purpose - to share our experiences in order to understand and advocate for our relatives and friends.

History

NAMI Putnam has been an affiliate of NAMI-NYS for approximately twenty-five years.  Our founder, Mildred Smith, was dedicated to supporting and educating families and their loved ones diagnosed with a serious mental illness. By her staunch advocacy she brought awareness to the community and hope to those seriously ill. Mildred was also involved in the spirited formation of the Mental Health Association in Putnam. In 2005, after Mildred’s passing, a group of family members, consumers and professionals picked up Mildred’s torch and began to build on Mildred’s dreams.

Recent Activities

NAMI Putnam continues to focus on Mildred’s dreams and enthusiastically established a set of goals in order to educate family members, County Legislatures, law enforcement and the community about mental illness.

In 2005, through our perseverance, NAMI Putnam obtained over a thousand signatures on a petition requesting our County Legislature to re-establish a 24/7 Crisis Hot Line and a Mobile Crisis Intervention Team. As a result of our petition a Task Force was created by the Legislature and a County Crisis Hot Line (845-225-1222) funded by the County was placed in operation.

Our efforts for a Mobile Crisis Team resulted in an invitation to participate in Project Summit, a conference of mental health providers and law enforcement officers held in June 2009. Our County was one of twelve selected in New York State to participate and produced a greater understanding and developed a protocol between mental health providers and law enforcement in dealing with a 911 call in an emergency situation.

Subsequently, our efforts led us to the creation of Putnam Rose House. Rose House is a peer-run hospital diversion service and is designed to accept people experiencing crisis or emotional distress.

In late 2007 we wrote a letter to the Administrative Judge in our area requesting the establishment of a Mental Health Court in our County. We are proud to have been involved in the creation of the Mental Health Court in 2009 and graciously accepted an invitation to the first graduation in early 2011.

In 2010 our affiliate received an award from NAMI-NYS for our Wellness Program.

The Wellness Program was attended by twenty consumers and provided them with an eleven-week course of instruction on nutrition, meal planning, cooking workshops, smoking cessation and stress management. It was a great success and we are looking forward to offering another series.

The “In Our Own Voice” and “Family-to-Family” programs continue to provide the support and education to the community and families. Information about these valuable programs is available on our web site.

Of course, all of our achievements and success has been the result of our dedicated and passionate member volunteers. NAMI Putnam is also extremely thankful to our County Executive and Legislature, Commissioner of Mental Health, Michael J Piazza, Jr., Law Enforcement and Providers who have been involved in our efforts. We deeply appreciate their cooperation and assistance.

Challenge

NAMI Putnam invites you to join us in continuing our journey to support, educate and advocate for those families and loved ones who are coping with mental illness.  We also need each other for mutual support and compassion, in order to cope with the effects that mental illness has had on every person in our families.

NAMI Putnam Meetings

We meet the third Wednesday of each month at 6:45pm at the Mahopac Public Library in Mahopac, NY.

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