Opening Day

The 2007 NAMI National Convention kicked off today in San Diego, CA. NAMI members, leaders, and others whose lives have been affected by serious mental illness began arriving at the Town and Country Convention Center for four days of learning, connecting, and re-charging for action.

The focus of the day's activities was networking and training for NAMI's grassroots leaders and advocates. Many attendees took part in one of the 15 different workshops that comprised this year's Leadership Institute. Topics included grant writing, strategic planning, and marketing, as well as strategies related to healthcare reform, criminalization, and multicultural outreach.

The day was capped off with a special session entitled "Neuroscience Perspectives on Recovery from Mental Illness". The session looked at how the science and state-of-the-art research into the brain affect our current understanding of recovery from serious mental illness. Presenters included Michael Schwartz, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Hawaii, and Manfred Spitzer, M.D, professor and chair, Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulm, in Ulm Germany.