Mental Health Awareness Campaign, NAMI Chapter Initiatives Thrive After CVC Study Circles | Local News

Charlie Falkis, who serves on NAMI Sheridan’s steering committee, said he’s used NAMI’s services in other states and is surprised that Wyoming residents don’t widely recognize the organization.

“I had used the group services of a NAMI chapter in Virginia, so I wanted to be part of it,” Falkis said. “As I saw that more and more people in Sheridan were unaware of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, I wanted to bring my lived perspective to the group.”

Terri Markham, executive director of Uprising, an organization that raises awareness of human trafficking and exploitation and expands prevention education efforts, became one of the leaders of the NAMI Sheridan Project. NAMI Sheridan received a $30,000 grant from the Hughes Charitable Trust to run a community awareness campaign on mental health issues, and Markham said the group was just a step away from gaining status. national affiliate.

Once granted, NAMI Affiliate status means that the Sheridan Chapter can access all sorts of materials, courses, and resources from the national group.

“It means we can start running programs without building them from scratch,” Markham said.

NAMI Sheridan will start with peer support groups, train facilitators using NAMI resources, and has prioritized a program called “In Our Own Voice.” This program is an awareness campaign where survivors and people living with mental illness are invited to speak in their communities about their experience, destigmatizing mental health issues.

“Year after year, Wyoming has ranked among the top four states in the nation with the highest suicide rate,” Falkis said. “Being able to break down that stigma and let others know that there is help and there is hope is key.”

Falkis, who is open about his own mental health issues, said he was afraid of being labelled.

“We see movies and we think about extremes, but I think knowing that there are ordinary people struggling with mental health issues, people thriving in the community who share that diagnosis or have had a period difficult in life, it helps to normalize it. It helps create an incentive to work on these things,” Falkis said.

NAMI Sheridan will host two free public events in September. The first is from 5-8 p.m. Sept. 1 at Kinnison Hall in Sheridan College’s Whitney Center for the Arts, where the film “My Ascension,” a documentary about spreading hope and fighting suicide, will be screened, along with a resource fair. , questions and answers and round table.

“We want to tell people, ‘Hey, suicide can be a scary topic, but the more we talk about it, the more we can take an upstream approach, the more we can start to build protective factors into children’s lives and into our life”. lives,” Falkis said.

Various organizations acting as protective factors in the community will be present, as well as suicide survivors, peer helpers and prevention specialists.

“Although we cannot give clinical advice, all questions are welcome,” he said. “Questions will not be taken with judgment. They will be greeted with an open understanding.

The second event, geared towards children and families, will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. on September 11 at the Sheridan College Campus Center and will include a free children’s fair and the screening of the film “Inside Out.” At both events, Falkis said the public is encouraged to attend.

Through her work with Uprising, Markham said she is interested in all topics that impact survivors and mental health is high on her list.

“This kind of work prevents people from putting themselves in danger or being exploited. When you have a community that embraces these discussions and you feel safe to talk about the struggles and be real, that’s a vulnerability,” she said.

“But if you feel you have to hide these things, and what we see again and again, especially in young people when they have mental health issues and don’t feel safe talking about it, is that they end up doing something like going online and sharing it with someone online who is really nice. They don’t realize that person is actually a predator,” she said.

Having a mental health issue can be a vulnerability, she said, but when someone feels loved, empowered and safe in their community, it all serves as a protective factor to keep that person safe.

“We need a lot of help, and now we have a lot of tangible things happening,” she said. “There is something for anyone who wants to get involved. It can be giving money, giving time, lending a skill, making an introduction or a connection that will move our work forward. There’s a lot to do and there are a lot of great ideas around this.