Sept/Oct 2001

Mental Illness Awareness Week

Thank goodness the Grinch never cried, "I must stop Mental Illness Awareness Week from coming!" MIAW 2001, October 7-13 is here, and this occasion provides one of the best opportunities of the year for NAMI North Carolina members to help raise community awareness of mental illness. Our affiliates are planning some great events. So please contact your affiliate president and find out what you can do to support your affiliate’s effort. The above logo and many other graphics and materials for your event can now be downloaded from NAMInet, which can be accessed from NAMI’s homepage at www.nami.org.

Some of our affiliates’ plans include NAMI Guilford’s new workshop on Monday, October 8th, 9-1:00. The event is designed to help enhance the clergy’s response to mental illness. (Contact Frank Cleary, 336-286-2603). This follows along with the popular program of many affiliates, who print and deliver flyers with contact information to churches, which are then inserted into their church service bulletins.

NAMI Orange may take home the prize in this category for their annual distribution of ten thousand flyers to 75 churches! Ministers are also encouraged to address the topic of mental illness in their sermons that week.

NAMI High County will operate a booth at the mall in Boone, featuring members’ artwork.

NAMI Charlotte will again have their annual MIAW Luncheon. (Contact Robert Steele, 704-786-8615.)

NAMI Wake will again distribute flyers and contribute volunteers to the Thad & Alice Eure Walk For Hope in Raleigh. (Call Moira Pearson, 919-821-1954.)

Perhaps NAMI Four Seasons in Hendersonville will put on the most imaginative event. They are planning a Backwards Walk on Saturday October 6^th to raise money for their local clubhouse. Yes, they will walk backwards for one mile to symbolize the backwards progress of our current policy crisis in North Carolina! I told Mollie Wingerter (828-891-2585) that I think their event is one that I certainly plan to attend! But perhaps I should not have offered so early. If there are other events going on that day, I might be forced to choose which event on which to bestow the (dubious) honor of my presence. I certainly would NOT want to start a friendly competition….

Make Your Voice Heard

NAMI North Carolina’s Board of Directors is developing its new Strategic Plan for 2002-2007. The Strategic Planning Committee has designed the attached survey to provide NAMI members an opportunity for input into the planning process.

Please take a few minutes to answer the questions on the survey. Then tear the survey form off, fold and tape it, attach a stamp and mail it.

Your participation will be greatly appreciated!

We Need NAMI and NAMI Needs Us

The past two months have been a time of change for NAMI North Carolina. First, it may come as a surprise to you that I am writing this column. I was moved into the office of President due to the recent resignation of Don Clark. I did not expect this move so quickly or in this fashion. Second, the NAMI North Carolina board has accepted the resignation of Paul Bamford as executive director.

Your board has met several times to deal with these matters. As a result, we are in a very good position to begin planning for our future. We are fortunate that Beth Melcher has agreed to act as interim director. The NAMI North Carolina office is operating at full staff with all programs and services available to the members and affiliates.

I am reminded of how I was first introduced to NAMI nearly seven years ago. My son was just diagnosed with schizophrenia and experiencing his first hospitalization. I knew nothing about mental illnesses and I thought those things were for someone else, not for me. I was wrong.

I was really lost and did not know where to turn for help. My wife, Sue, said "There is a support group for everything, surely there is a support group for this!" So she made some phone calls and we found NAMI! I was welcomed and made to feel a part of the NAMI family. Many NAMI folks took a real interest in our struggles and my wife and I were able to learn what mental illnesses were all about by reading many recommended books and listening to others share their experiences.

I say this to let you know that NAMI’s real strength lies in its members who share their personal struggles and go out of their way to help others who are feeling the pain of dealing with mental illnesses. We need NAMI and NAMI needs us more than ever during this transition period. Together we can make a difference!

A Nation Under Stress

Tuesday, September 11, 2001 is known by some as "America’s Darkest Day." Thousands of persons lost their lives, lost loved ones, and lost their feeling of security. Many more of us are just beginning to feel the effects of the tragedy which took place on that day.

"This is the beginning of the aftermath phase," stress disorder expert Mark I. Levy, MD, tells WebMD. Most of us are having the same experience, the sense that this can't really be happening. Memories of the awful scenes leap unbidden into our minds. We may even try to avoid talking or even thinking about it. These are the symptoms of acute stress disorder -- a very real psychological condition, says Russell J. Kormann, PhD, associate director of the post traumatic stress disorder program at Rutgers University's Anxiety Disorders Clinic. It differs from the long-lasting illness known as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) only in that for most, it will pass -- but not for all of us.

Most of us now are experiencing symptoms of acute stress: jumpiness, a short fuse, or impatience when we are driving. Or we may feel tearful, with waves of emotion suddenly washing over us. Instead of sleeping soundly, we may toss and turn, with disturbing thoughts in our heads.

Those of us who live with family members with mental illness, or have mental illness ourselves, understand what even a small amount of stress can do. Be especially aware of symptoms early on. Area programs should make counselors available to those who need them at this time.

Symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder do not usually appear until 4-6 months after an event. However, many of our folks may have already experienced a kind of post traumatic stress disorder from involuntary commitments involving police action and/or traumatic experiences at state hospitals. The devastation of mental illness can effect everyone dealing with it.

We need to be on the lookout for substance abuse. Alcohol and abuse of other substances may seem to provide short-term relief, but do more damage than good. This is especially true for our loved ones. Professional help may be needed.

If you need extra help during this time to deal with the local mental health system, please contact our Helpline at 1-800-451-9682.

New Affiliate

NAMI Edgecombe-Nash became NAMI North Carolina’s newest affiliate in June. Ed Masters serves as their first president, (252) 443-9622.

NAMI Edgecombe-Nash has already made a splash in Rocky Mount by organizing a group presence at an important meeting of their area board.

You can find more information about their meetings at www.naminc.org. Click on Affiliates.

A Bright Future For NAMI’s Signature Program

by David Bibb
Affiliate Services Director, Family-to-Family Program Director

At our recent NAMI 2001 Annual Convention, I attended several in depth workshops on the Family-to-Family Program. Dr. Harry Mills, Executive Director of NAMI Kentucky spoke passionately about a bright vision for Family-to-Family within NAMI. He called for all NAMI state and local affiliates to showcase Family-to-Family as the centerpiece of our Education agenda, and to let Education serve as the modus operandi for fulfilling all other agendas within our NAMI mission. In other words, Support is offered side by side with Education. Advocacy follows naturally through Education. Let Education be the catalyst for our mission. And Family-to-Family rests at the center of Education within NAMI.

I hope you share in his vision! The Family-to-Family Program has grown tremendously everywhere, and has become the signature project of NAMI all across the U.S. Here in North Carolina we are experiencing this phenomenal success as something that gives us renewed hope for the future and a real strength that helps us continue to advocate for improvement in mental health services. Affiliates are getting new volunteers from our more than 100 classes to date, and our membership rolls are growing. And for those 1500 of us who have been directly touched by the Family-to-Family 12 week course, many feel a deep gratitude and joy for any amount of relief from the pain and anguish of the effects of mental illness in our families.

But this tremendous success also has challenged both our state office and our affiliates. The NAMI North Carolina Board of Directors Program Committee, chaired by Mary Ann Widenhouse, has convened a Family-to-Family Task Force to address management issues. An initial questionnaire is being mailed to all Family-to-Family teachers. We are reviewing past Family-to-Family successes and challenges. And we are talking with affiliates about a new volunteer position taking shape, the local Family-to-Family Coordinator. Serving on the local affiliate Board, the Family-to-Family Coordinator will help to maximize the investment in Family-to-Family resources and teachers and, importantly, can work to draw the affiliate and Family-to-Family graduates closer together.

Family-to-Family has helped so many NAMI North Carolina members recover their lives and their loved ones. If you are one of them, won’t you contribute to making the future brighter for other families living with mental illness? Please call your affiliate president. We would like to hear from you.

NAMI North Carolina Contributors Use Payroll Deductions

Almost $15,000 was contributed to NAMI North Carolina last year through payroll deduction campaigns conducted by state employees, federal employees and local United Way campaigns. Thank you for your support, and a special thanks to those contributors who "designated" NAMI North Carolina–i.e., who directed that their contributions go to support us.

Your support enables us to continue and expand our wonderful programs of support, education and advocacy, for persons with mental illnesses and their families. That’s the most important thing. Another great benefit is that, when you "designate" NAMI North Carolina, you also increase the share we receive from the pool of undesignated gifts, which is divided among the organizations supported by state employees, federal employees and local United Ways.

Fall campaigns are upon us and campaign information is being distributed now. To find NAMI North Carolina, look under the "Community Health Charities" section with other health-oriented organizations. It’ll be your chance to be an important supporter with the ease of payroll deduction.

2002 is Almost Here

NAMI North Carolina affiliates are gearing up for our 2002 membership renewal effort. NAMI memberships expire each January and we know you wouldn’t want to let your membership lapse!

Please renew your membership with your affiliate as early as possible. Contact your affiliate leaders to learn of the renewal procedure for your affiliate. NAMI needs you!

If you are not currently a member, join us! We need you!

Sense of Smell Holds Clue to Brain

Schizophrenics’ react strongly to unpleasant odors but often do not appreciate pleasant ones, and their brains’ response to smells may provide a clue to their paranoid thoughts, researchers said on Tuesday.

When schizophrenics in the study were exposed to an unpleasant odor emitted by a type of acid, brain scans showed an increase in blood flow to their prefrontal cortex, a region normally used to recognize pleasant stimuli.

The prefrontal cortex was apparently "hijacked" in the brains of schizophrenics to detect a potential threat, and was not available to respond when they sniffed a pleasant lemon door, according to a study by researchers at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

"The use of…(the) prefrontal cortex for such survival tasks may also lead to an aberrant tendency to attribute threatening aspects to stimuli and in turn give rise to paranoid thinking," lead researcher Benedicto Crespo-Facorro reports in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A healthy brain used the centrally located limbic regions to react to and evaluate threats, but patients with schizophrenia had decreased blood flow to three key limbic regions in response to the unpleasant odor, the report indicates.

While previous research on brain activity in schizophrenics has focused on hallucinations and memory deficits, the University of Iowa study focused on their perception of pleasant and unpleasant sensory experiences.

Schizophrenics’ inability to experience pleasurable emotions, a common symptom, is call anhedonia. "Patients with schizophrenia appear to have a normal ability to experience unpleasant emotion, coupled with an impairment in the ability to experience pleasant ones, and the more psychotic they are, the greater the acuity of their ability to recognize unpleasantness," the report concludes.