newsletter

Everyone Has A Story: 1 in 5 Has Mental Illness by Stephanie Rosen 11718 Parklawn Drive, Rockville, MD 20852 301-949-5852 | www.namimc.org

INSIDE THE ISSUE Announcements

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NAMI Programs/ Letter from ED

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Calendar

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GMStrong!

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Heroes 2015 Photos

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Side by Side/ NAMI EN ESPAÑOL

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NAMI Thrift Shop

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to our newsletter donors David & Leslie Agro for helping to sponsor this newsletter. We couldn’t do what we do without you!

Want to help keep our newsletter running on a regular basis? Email megan@ namimc.org for sponsorship opportunities.

I recently had the opportunity to share my own personal story of recovery while living with depression not only in the Sept/Oct. 2015 Bethesda Magazine, but also in a Docs In Progress mini-documentary, “Stephanie’s Story.” I hope that by bringing my own story out into the light I will encourage others to step forward and share their stories, too.

Photos courtesy Lisa Helfert.

Make Your Story The Reason You Donate. We will be continuing our “Everyone Has A Story” theme through the end of the year. In support of our cause – and to help end the stigma surrounding mental illness – please download our Twibbon (here’s the link: http://bit.ly/1Nxdk8X) and post it on your Facebook and Twitter profile pictures.

If you would like to take the next step and share your story, please reach out to our Communications Director Megan Pauly at [email protected]. Make your story the reason you donate to NAMI MC this holiday season on Giving Tuesday, Dec. 1 or during our end of the year giving campaign.

NAMI Program List: Ever Expanding! For General Public Awareness: General Education Meetings - presentation Awareness in the Workplace - presentation/class In Our Own Voice - presentation Newsletter Helpline - 301.949.5852 Mon-Fri 10am-2pm For Family Members of Individuals Living with Mental Illness: Family-to-Family - 12 session class Family Support Groups For Individuals Living with Mental Illness: Peer-to-Peer - 10 session class Connection Recovery Support Groups For Parents & Teachers of Children & Adolescents: NAMI Basics - 6 session class Parents and Teachers as Allies - presentation For Adolescents: Ending the Silence - presentation Sources of Strength - in school support program For Young Adults: NAMI on campus - club For Family & Friends & Caregivers of Seniors: Side by Side - series/class For Family & Caregivers of Veterans or Service Members: NAMI Homefront - 6 session class For Veterans Living with Mental Illness: Connection Recovery Support Group For Police: CIT Training - presentation For Spanish Speaking Communities: Compartiendo Esperanza - presentation En Nuestra Propia Voz - presentation Padres y Maestros Como Aliados - presentation Familia-a-Familia - 12 session class Persona-a-Persona - 10 session class Bases y Fundamentos - 6 session class Grupos de Apoyo For African American Communities: Sharing Hope - presentation For Faith Based Communities: Sharing Hope - presentation Compartiendo Esperanza - presentation Advocacy: Smarts for Advocacy - workshop Ambassadors Training - workshop

What’s New with NAMI MC & What’s to Come Soon From the NAMI MC Executive Director Dear Friends and Members of NAMI MC, I want to take a minute to say how blown away I was by our 2015 “Everyone Has A Story” Heroes Celebration on October 9th.We far exceeded our fundraising goal of $75,000, bringing in $105,000. For those who weren’t in attendance, we honored Diane Rehm of The Diane Rehm Show, Pete Earley and Jessie Close. Jessie Close and Pete Earley co-wrote a book, “Resilience: Two Sisters And A Story of Mental Illness,” and Diane Rehm interviewed Close and Earley on her show. We also honored Susan Rosenstock, who helped launch an organization called “umttr” in honor of her son Evan Rosenstock who died by suicide in 2013. The mission of UMTTR is to empower students to share the message that “every life matters.” UMTTR has partnered with NAMI MC to bring the evidence-based peer led suicide prevention program Sources of Strength to Montgomery County. As some of you may know, I also recently had the opportunity to share my own personal story of recovery while living with depression not only in Bethesda Magazine, but also in a Docs In Progress minidocumentary. You can read the story in the September/October 2015 edition of Bethesda Magazine, or visit the Docs in Progress you-tube channel and search for “Stephanie’s Story.” It took me many years to be comfortable sharing my story in such a capacity, but I’m very glad I shared it in the end. After all, it is largely by deciding to ask individuals to step into the spotlight and share our own stories about mental illness that stigma will start to dissipate and not be thought of as scary or non-comprehensible. If you, like me, would like to share your story of either living with a mental illness or as a family member/friend of someone living with a mental illness, please reach out to our Communications Director Megan Pauly at [email protected]. You can also call our office and ask to speak with her. We will be continuing our “Everyone Has A Story” theme through the end of the year, but will always continue collecting stories. Also in support of our cause – and to help end the stigma – please download our Twibbon (see bottom of page 1 for more information) to post on your Facebook and Twitter profile pictures. If you are interested in applying to be on the NAMI MC board, please e-mail Nancy L Wolf at: [email protected]. We’d love to have you; we’ve just added two new board members in the last several months: please welcome Roberta Petrishko and Sam Walinsky. Lastly – please save the date for Advocacy Day next year; it will be on February 25th, 2016. Warm regards,

**In Sam Walinsky’s story in our last newsletter, it was stated that Sam was in Vietnam for 10 years. However, he took two, one year tours in Vietnam.

december 2015

Please visit www.namimc.org for calendar updates! SUNDAY

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MONDAY

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TUESDAY

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WEDNESDAY 2

THURSDAY

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7:00 pm NAMI Connection @ Adult Behavioral Health Program Building

7:00 pm Family-to-Family @ NAMI MC office**

FRIDAY

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6:30 pm Grupo de Apoyo en Español @ NAMI MC Office

SATURDAY

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10:30 am Family Support Group @ NAMI MC office

7:00-9:00 pm General Education meeting @ NAMI MC Office **PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR FAMILY-TO-FAMILY

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7:00 pm NAMI 7:00 pm NAMI Connection @ Medstar Connection @ NAMI Montgomery General MC Office Hospital

2:30 pm Family Support Group @ Rockville Unitarian Universalist Church

7:00 pm Family-to-Family @ Family Services, Inc.**

7:00 pm Family-to-Family @ NAMI MC Office**

**PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR FAMILY-TO-FAMILY

**PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR FAMILY-TO-FAMILY

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7:00 pm Family-to-Family @ NAMI MC Office**

9:00 am Family NAMI Walks 9:30 Maryland! @ Baltimore Support Group @ Inner Harbor MedStar Mont. Med Center

17 7:00 pm NAMI Connection @ Adult Behavioral Health Program Building

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6:30 pm Grupo de Apoyo en Español @ NAMI MC Office 7:00 pm Spouse Support Group @ NAMI MC Office

**PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR FAMILY-TO-FAMILY

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3:00 pm NAMI Connection @ Silver Spring Wellness Center

7:00 pm Family-to-Family @ Family Services, Inc.**

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11 7:00 pm Family Support Group @ St. James Episcopal Church

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7:00 pm NAMI Connection @ Medstar Montgomery General Hospital

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**PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR FAMILY-TO-FAMILY

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7:00 pm NAMI 7:00 pm NAMI Connection @ Medstar Connection @ NAMI Montgomery General MC Office Hospital Room

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26 3:00 pm NAMI Connection @ Silver Spring Wellness Center

Save the Date: Dec 3 General Education Meeting - Side-by-Side Workshop (see page 7 for more info) Save the Date: Feb 11 General Education Meeting - Treatment-Resistant Depression Research Save the Date: Feb 28 Advocacy Day 2016 TELL YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CO-WORKERS TO REGISTER NOW: Family-to-Family starting Jan. 18: email [email protected] NAMI Homefront & Peer-to-Peer also starting in January: email [email protected]

Announcing Receipt of Exciting Grant Award: Trawick Foundation TeamUp! By Megan Pauly, NAMI MC’s Communications Director/Grant Writer

As part of the GMStrong! school year, performers from world-class dance troupe Step Afrika! performed at Gaithersburg Middle School in November.

Last winter on behalf of NAMI MC, I attended a Trawick Foundation meeting to learn more about the Jim & Carol Trawick Foundation and their funding priorities. It started off with a networking session (during which I met Daphnee Cherubin, Executive Director of Retouch International Ministries (RIM), among others) and the meeting turned into the most creative foundation-run session I’ve ever attended. “Can I get a T, E, A, M, U, P!” Carol Trawick spelled out the letters of “TeamUp,” and her enthusiasm lit up the room. She then unveiled the new focus for the FY16 proposals – to meet the unmet needs of middle schools. The goal of the project was for three non-profits to “team up” with one of several middle schools to address the unmet needs of the particular school.

Lo and behold, our project was one of two selected for funding! This means that over the course of one year, $150,000 is split between the four organizations. This project is unique in that there is the possibility to receive funding for two additional consecutive years. We kicked off the year for GMStrong! with Sources of Strength training of adults and students, as well as a NAMI Basics class at GMS for parents of children living with mental illness. Project Change hosted a family-friendly entertainment evening featuring the world-renowned dance troop “Step Afrika!” We are excited to move with the project into the new year, and years following!

At the conclusion of Carol’s presentation, each non-profit representative was assigned a table. Six different non-profit representatives sat around round tables and the middle school representatives rotated tables to hear the 1-minute elevator speeches about the mission of each non-profit. After speaking with Lola Rogers and Carol Goddard of Gaithersburg Middle School, I learned that their school had significant mental health needs. After the presentation, I was tasked with making connections with two other non-profits to meet the needs of one middle school. I first contacted Daphnee of RIM, as I knew her life-skills program was designed for at-risk girls likely facing issues that would either trigger a mental illness or accompany mental illnesses. She came on board, followed by Project Change (PC). Project Change offers several different after school programs to address issues of anti-bullying, empowerment, leadership and community service. NAMI MC, RIM and PC partnered with Gaithersburg Middle School to submit a proposal for funding from the Jim & Carol Trawick Foundation as GMStrong! We felt the name was appropriate, as NAMI MC was bringing Sources of Strength to the table for the proposal.

Step Afrika! performs at GMS on Nov 3.

TeamUp 2015 Lead Partner: The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Montgomery County [NAMI MC] Partners: Project Change, Retouch International Ministries, and Gaithersburg Middle School Project Description: GM Strong! is an innovative, cutting-edge, holistic program that incorporates messages of hope, health, strength and leadership into a variety of activities addressing often overlooked needs of all Gaithersburg Middle School students relating to bullying, mental health, and the repercussions of poverty. The innovation of the program lies in the recognition of these needs and their importance to student well-being, the coordination of several evidence-based programs to target these needs, and the maximal leverage of peer support networks. The mission of GMStrong! is to address the needs of Gaithersburg Middle School by helping students learn positive life skills’ which will enable them to overcome difficulties they face and aspire, not only to reduce the gap in achievement, but to reach their full potential. The GMStrong! slogan is: “Success is the only option.”

Left: Gaithersburg Middle School students discuss strengths in their lives during the GMStrong! peer leader training. Right: NAMI MC Youth Program Coordinator Julianne Grothe works with students during GMStrong! peer leader training.

For the 2015 school year, GMStrong!’s holistic approach will feature the following programs: • In-school evidence-based suicide-prevention program called Sources of Strength, implemented by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Montgomery County to touch the lives of all 758 Gaithersburg Middle School students • After-school programs led by Project Change focused on leadership, community service, anti-bullying, and other issues facing adolescents • After-school life skills program led by Retouch International Ministries for a group of 35 identified at-risk Gaithersburg Middle School girls, the GEMS

• In-school conflict resolution training by the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County (CRCMC) for a group of 40 identified at-risk students • In-school and after-school secondary partners such as Gaithersburg High School and Linkages to Learning • Evening parenting class and support group for caregivers of children living with mental illnesses • Field trips and in-school specialty workshops and performances with guest artists

From left to right: Honoree Susan Rosenstock at podium; Heroes volunteers/staff; Author Pete Earley, Heroes Chair Holly Funger Dubin, WAMU’s Diane Rehm, Honoree Jessie Close, NAMI MC’s Stephanie Rosen and UMTTR’s Susan Rosenstock; Honoree Jessie Close, Bethesda Magazine’s Gabriele McCormick, NAMI MC’s Stephanie Rosen; Heroes Chair Holly Funger Dubin, NAMI MC Board President Mimi Kress, Lori Ulanow; Honoree Susan Rosenstock (middle) and Heroes guests; Marc Dubin, Heroes Chair Holly Funger Dubin, Honoree Jessie Close.

NAMI MC Implements Workshop for Caregivers of Seniors NAMI MC recently received a county grant to implement a series of workshops called NAMI Side-by-Side, designed for caregivers of seniors living with mental illness. So far, NAMI MC is working to develop partnerships with Leisure World and the Hebrew Home to provide the workshops for their senior populations. If you would like more information about this program and/ or might be interested in hosting a workshop, please email nicole@ namimc.org.

The Beatniks are Back!

NAMI EN ESPAÑOL NAMI MC celebró el Mes Nacional de Concienciación sobre Salud Mental de las Minorías en el mes de julio de 2015, con una gran presentación llamada “Compartiendo Esperanza” en el Santuario San Judas Tadeo Iglesia Católica en Rockville. Casi cincuenta personas escucharon a dos presentadores quienes compartieron sus historias personales, como alguien que vive con una enfermedad mental y como familiar. Todos los asistentes aprendieron bastante acerca de las señales y los síntomas que se tienen cuando se padece una enfermedad mental y también sobre cómo pedir ayuda. NAMI MC participó en un Foro Comunitario de Salud Mental en Septiembre de 2015. Nuestra organización ayudó a planificar y a presentar un foro con varios expertos de salud mental latina. Entre los conferenciantes se encontraron el Dr. Elmer Huerta, un experto de la salud pública, el Jefe de Policía del Condado de Montgomery, J. Thomas Manger, y también Elyssa Diamond, la Coordinadora de Abogacía y Programas Latinos de NAMI MC. El foro tuvo lugar el 21 de septiembre en la Iglesia Metodista Unida de Epworth en Gaithersburg. Estaba enfocado en la importancia de pedir ayuda, y en los recursos disponibles en español en el condado. NAMI MC OFRECE LOS SIGUIENTES PROGRAMAS DE SALUD MENTAL EN ESPAÑOL:

After a six-year hiatus, the Montgmomery County mental health dinner/lecture club is back in action! Come to their kick-off event featuring Dr. Bob Litman, Founder & Medical Director of CBH Health, discussing cutting-edge new treatments for schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder. The meeting will take place Wednesday, December 16th at 6 p.m. at Tastee Diner, 8601 Cameron Street in downtown Silver Spring. It’s convenient to Metro; parking in public garage across the street. Call Beatnik Pete with any questions, 240-3287546.

Volunteers & Interns Needed! NAMI MC is currently looking for the following: Young adult Ending the Silence presenters ages 18-24, hours vary per presentation, must be living in recovery Adult Ending the Silence presenters hours vary per presentation, must be family members of individuals living with mental illness Thrift shop volunteer up to 16 hours/week Marketing/web design intern up to 20 hours/week Development intern up to 20 hours/week

Grupo de Apoyo en Español - El grupo se reúne cada primer y tercer viernes del mes. Nos reunimos para proveer de información general a las 6:30pm, y de las 7:008:30pm para el grupo, en las oficinas de NAMI en el 11718 Parklawn Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20852 (detrás del supermercado Mega Mart). En estas reuniones se habla de la experiencia de tener una enfermedad mental, y se recibe el apoyo de personas en la misma situación. El grupo está abierto a todas las personas que padezcan una enfermedad mental y también a sus familiares. Las personas que quieran participar no necesitan inscribirse. De Familia A Familia- PRÓXIMO CURSO en ENERO de 2016 - Clase de 12 semanas para familiares de adultos mayores de 18 años que tienen una enfermedad mental. Esta clase es una oportunidad magnífica para aprender sobre la variedad de enfermedades mentales y sus síntomas. Los participantes aprenderán técnicas para cuidar a un ser querido además de cuidarse a sí mismo. ¡Por favor, llámenos pronto para registrarse! Bases Y Fundamentos - Clase de 6 semanas para padres de jóvenes menores de 18 años que han sido diagnosticados con una enfermedad mental. Los padres aprenderán a comunicarse mejor con sus hijos, y cómo reconocer los síntomas de enfermedades mentales en niños y adolescentes. Por favor, llámenos para registrarse. Presentaciones especiales: en ellas se ayuda a la comunidad a facilitar la conversación sobre el bienestar mental. “Compartiendo Esperanza” se realiza a través de las iglesias, y “Padres Y Maestros Como Aliados” a través de las escuelas y organizaciones comunitarias. Llámenos para mayor información y para pedir una presentación para su propia iglesia u organización. Línea de Ayuda - (301) 949-5852, ext. 103 - Llámenos de 1pm- 6pm los lunes, miércoles, jueves y viernes, y de 10am-2pm los martes. Si no estamos disponibles, por favor deje su mensaje y se le regresará la llamada tan pronto como sea posible. Hay personas de habla hispana para informarles de los doctores y terapistas que hay en las diferentes áreas y sobre los grupos de apoyo y las clases educativas. ¿PREGUNTAS? Para más información llame a Elyssa Diamond, MSW, al (301) 949-5852, x103.

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11718 Parklawn Drive Rockville, MD 20852 Phone: (301) 949 - 5852 Helpline: (301) 949 - 9630 [email protected] www.namimc.org @NAMIMontgomery County @NAMIMoCo United Way #8687 CFC #27615 THRIFT SHOP (301) 949 - 5731 Shop NAMI MC Thrift Shop! When you donate or shop at the NAMI MC Thrift Shop you are supporting the programs and mission of NAMI MC. All of our programs are free to our community. Support our thrift shop! It supports us! Donations Accepted Monday - Saturday 11 AM - 6 PM Shop Hours Monday - Saturday 11 AM - 6 PM Sunday 12 PM - 5 PM

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mimi Kress (President) Josh Wooldridge (Vice President) Les Ulanow (Treasurer) Nancy Wolf (Secretary) Michael Murray Holly Funger Dubin Roberta Petrishko Sam Walinsky STAFF Stephanie Rosen, Executive Director Nicole Lucas, Program Director Megan Pauly, Communications Director Julianne Grothe, Youth Program Coordinator & Office Manager Elyssa Diamond, Advocacy & Latino Programs Coordinator Kim Fletcher, Floor Manager Telena Henderson, Production Room Manager

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