Resource Center

Last winter, my family and I received a great blessing: we were introduced to NAMI. After nearly five years of isolation, we finally found a place of support for my daughter’s mental illness. We are so grateful for NAMI’s acceptance and compassion. Because of our experience, I am pleased and honored to volunteer for my affiliate, NAMI Western Slope in Grand Junction, Colo. I have a deep desire to work with members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community who have mental illness and their families, an aspiration that has grown out of witnessing my daughter Adrian’s development of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia hallucinations in addition to the struggle of being born transgender

In September 2012, I was sent to Baton Rouge, La. to attend the NAMI Peer-to-Peer training class. I attended this class as I am a person who does what I am told to do and I am a "team player." Since I had no previous experience with Peer-to-Peer, I used to think, what's the point of all this training anyway? How much could it really help?

On Monday, June 3, President Obama hosted a White House Conference on Mental Health. It was remarkable in several respects.

Adversity has a way of refining a soul. The hands of despair and pain reach inside and although grieve you, they also somehow renew. I am sure to some that sounds a bit dark but ponder for a moment all your past struggles and proceed to ask yourself, “How did that affect me?” Most likely the answer is: strength. Our trials make us stronger. The battles revive our yearning to be victorious; to overcome.

The recent announcement that the NAMI Family-to-Family program is now listed on the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) is an accomplishment that everyone connected with NAMI should be proud of. It represents a journey that is not unlike the personal journeys that many of us have lived; the journey from obscurity and feeling lost while trying to find our voice to becoming a confident and effective advocate with a knowledgeable commitment to our common purpose.

Three years ago I left the corporate world to advocate for individuals living with mental illness. And my decision to “come out” as a person with a mental illness has been essential to my work. Advocating has helped me accomplish things I did not know I was capable of. (A wonderful surprise at the age of 60!) One of those things is becoming a children’s book author! I have finished two in a series of five books. My first is focused on bipolar disorder within a family. And my second is about trauma, I Need Dad and Dad Needs Me (a loving lesson about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for families).

Individuals living with a mental illness need to talk with someone who understands—someone who has been in the same situation they are in, someone who can give them hope and inspiration for their recovery. The NAMI Connection Recovery Support Groups provide that resource for individuals to connect with in their community, but what about individuals who are in severe crisis and have been hospitalized? This is the situation where they desperately need someone to talk to and bridge the gap to recovery.