PARENTS AND TEACHERS AS ALLIES
The Greater Orlando area has conducted a pilot educational program for NAMI National. The PARENTS AND TEACHERS AS ALLIES In-Service Program is a team presentation for schoolteachers, guidance counselors and other staff. The presentation is based on the NAMI booklet of the same name written by Joyce Burland, Ph.D. Dr. Burland’s monograph addresses the more common early on-set mental illnesses and the impact on the family that these illnesses have. Our panel of four consists of: an educator who is the parent of a child with early onset mental illness, a Family to Family teacher with a child with early onset, a parent of a child who is currently in school and has early onset, and a consumer who was mentally ill as a child. We share the lived experiences we have had as parents, educators, and consumers and engage the attendees in a dialog about what can be done to improve the lives of children stricken by these brain disorders. The educators we have appeared before have been very receptive and appreciative of our program.
Our Parents and Teachers as Allies In-service program was been accepted to present at the Linking Forces XII Conference in Miami recently. This twelfth annual children’s mental health conference was May 22 and 23 in Miami. The conference was hosted by the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Office of Exceptional Student Education and Student/Career Services, Multiagency Network for Students with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SEDNET). They also presented at the NAMI national convention this past July and will present at the NAMI state conference September 19 and 20, 2003.
