The Official Newsletter of NAMI Westchester March 2016

www.namiwestchester.org 914-592-5458

https://www.facebook.com/NAMIWestchester.org.

The Official Newsletter of NAMI Westchester March 2016

SPEAKER SERIES

DATE: March 9, 2016

(open to the public)

Treatment of Schizophrenia

Dr. Nikhil Palekar

Assistant Professor of

Psychiatry

Weill Cornell Medical

College

Time: 7:15 pm : Doors Open

7:30 pm: Program Begins

Location:

St. Vincent’s Hospital

275 North St, Harrison, NY

10528 *******************************

Next Meeting:

April 13, 2016

Topic: Marijuana, K2 and Spice—

How Times Have Changed

Speaker: Robert Anderson, LCSW-R,

CASCAC, CARC, CRPA

Executive Director

The Counseling Center at

Yorktown Heights, LLC

NAMI ON CAMPUS

We wish to congratulate Westchester Community College and College of Westchester on

establishing NAMI on Campus clubs. These student-led clubs tackle mental health issues

on campus by raising awareness, educating their community, supporting students, and

promoting services and advocacy. Clubs are open to all students whether they live with a

mental illness or not. Through these clubs we hope students with mental health issues can

have a positive and successful college experience.

NAMI on Campus at work! Pictured on the left is

Latiefah, the Club President for NAMI on Campus at

The College of Westchester. This photo was taken on

College Club Day where students can go around and

sign up for clubs. NAMI on Campus got 13 students to

sign up, great start!

TEAM = TOGETHER WE ACHIEVE MORE

NAMIWalks Westchester 2016 Marie Considine, Director of Development

Walking is fun and walking with others can be motivational, give you a laugh, and

lighten your spirits. Have you considered creating a walking team this year?

What is a walking team?

A team is loosely defined as 10 people who each raise $100+ for NAMIWalks

Westchester. There is no minimum amount to raise and no minimum number of team

members. These numbers are provided as a guideline.

How do I form a team?

Visit www.namiwalks.org/westchester and register a team name. The system will walk

you through how to invite people you know to join you. For help, contact

Marie Considine.

Can you share info and tips?

All Team Captains will receive an invitation to a special Kick-Off Event for Team

Captains! The party will be held on Wednesday, March 23 at 6:00 p.m. and will feature

delicious catered food and “how-to’s” and hear from a Team Captain who recently held a

team event. Please contact Marie for details.

Let’s make this the best walk yet!

We can only do it with your joining us. We count on members to further our mission and

both applaud and appreciate your commitment to NAMI Westchester and to promoting

mental health in our community.

Contact info: Marie Considine, 914-258-7613 or [email protected].

https://www.facebook.com/NAMIWestchester.org



TIME TO PAINT!

NAMIWalks Westchester 2016 Team Event Emily Pierce wants you to join her for a special event to benefit

her walking team, The Westchester Warriors. Come out for a fun

time, to create a gorgeous piece of artwork, and to make new

friends.

Emily is a NAMIWalks Westchester veteran and is excited to host

this party on Thursday, March 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Elements

Restaurant, 161 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10601.

The painting is called Spring Blossoms, original artist Emily

Engler.

Cost to attend and bring your artwork home with you is $45

all-inclusive. Register here:

https://paintnite.com/events/1044382.html.

Contact info: Marie Considine, 914-258-7613 or

[email protected].

SPONSOR NAMIWalks WESTCHESTER 2016 Marie Considine, Director of Development

NAMIWalks Westchester provides more than 60% of NAMI Westchester’s annual budget. This support is due to our

wonderful walkers and sponsors.

We are grateful to the generous businesses and organizations that have already committed to sponsoring this year’s

walk. If you own or know of a business that may wish to sponsor the walk, please contact Marie Considine for a

Sponsorship Brochure.

Benefits of sponsorship include tabling opportunities on Walk Day, logo placement in publicity and on t-shirts, and

much more. Sponsorships start at $250. It is important to make your commitments as soon as possible in order to begin

providing (and receiving) the benefits.

Contact info: 914-258-7613 or [email protected].

NAMIWalks WESTCHESTER SPONSORS TO DATE


https://paintnite.com/events/1044382.html



MESSAGE FROM ONE OF OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dr. Robert Laitman, Board Member & Advocacy Committee Chair

ADVOCACY

As chairperson of the Advocacy Committee, I would like to share the recent testimony given by NAMI NYS before the

Joint Legislature Public Hearing on the Mental Health Budget.

Good morning. My name is Wendy Burch, I am the Executive Director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness of

New York State (NAMI-NYS). With me today is Irene Turski, our Government Affairs and Housing Committee chair,

and the family member and caregiver of a loved one with a severe mental illness. Irene's family's story speaks to why

our legislative leaders must take action for the approximately 673,000 adult New Yorkers living with a serious mental

illness. This is a crucial time for this vulnerable population. Their lives and those of their families depend on the

decisions made by the Legislature as NAMI-NYS was encouraged by elements of the Executive Budget proposal,

however we have also identified serious gaps that must be bridged in order to save these people from falling through

the cracks and to create a truly mentally healthy and just New York State.

The systems which deliver mental health care in New York State are currently going through a radical overall at a very

rapid pace. The Executive Budget proposes the reduction of 225 psychiatric beds in fiscal year 2017 and recommends

reducing no more than 400. NAMI-NYS understands the benefits of community based housing and care, but we cannot

fully support the reduction in beds when it involves releasing people with highly specialized needs into a system, which

despite its best intentions, does not have the capacity to provide the necessary care for this vulnerable population. This

lack of capacity is greatly attributed to flat funding and the Executive Budget's lack of true investments to allow existing

programs to operate at their full capacity as well as invest in new services. We urge you to examine and address this

short fall as NAMI-NYS is only able to support any of these reductions if the necessary safety-nets are put in place to

ensure that these people are relocated to a setting which will properly address their specialized needs and to ensure

that families are educated and have the opportunity to participate in a loved one's recovery.

These requirements can only be achieved through having housing and community services that are properly funded and

have the full capacity to provide the specialized care this population needs and by enacting paid family leave, which

will remove a tremendous barrier separating families from playing a role in a loved one's recovery…….

Wendy goes on to encourage the need for long term investment in community mental health services. You can read the

entire testimony by Wendy and Irene at naminys.org. You can write to your state representatives demanding that they

provide the services and programs as outlined in Wendy’s testimony to better the quality of the treatment and quality of

life for those suffering from mental illness. Join me on Feb. 23 in Albany for the NAMI NYS 2016 Legislative

Conference and Advocacy Day.

TWO NEW FAMILY AND FRIENDS SUPPORT GROUP

We have two new Family and Friends Support Groups! The first support group is starting February 28th. This group

will meet every month of the 4th Sunday at 12:30 pm in Bedford Hills. The second support group is starting on March

7th and will meet on the 1st Monday of each month at 7:30 pm. if you are interested in attending either of these

groups, please call the office at 914-592-5458.




ASK THE DOCTOR Dr. Steven Shainmark

If you have a question for the “Ask the Doctor” column, please email it to

[email protected]. Please make your question a general question as The Doctor

cannot answer any personal questions in this column.

QUESTION: What are some approaches to work with a family members treatment team?

Dr. Shainmark is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College and has worked at St.

Vincent’s Westchester since 1988. He also regularly speaks to groups of law enforcement officers and volunteer

ambulance crews about how to help with psychiatric patients in crisis. He consults with a large national insurance

company, where he regularly advocates for best quality of care for psychiatry patients. He hates trade-speak and

believes in working with patients and families using common daily language.

Coping with a psychiatric illness and its consequences is extremely difficult and for many people the resource that

makes it possible at all is a strongly supportive family. As patients and families are painfully aware, severe psychiatric

illness often leads to poorer economic circumstances. The repeated interruptions due to episodes of illness make it

harder to complete school, sustain work, and advance within a career. Being economically challenged, whether because

of mental illness’s consequences or otherwise, can push people towards public transportation, that may make it difficult

to arrive places on time in a suburb such as Westchester. Being poor may also limit which healthcare providers a person

is allowed to see, an especially cruel fact when combined with the limitations mental illness and limited funds place on

making healthy food and lifestyle choices. Each of these challenges poses an opportunity for a supportive family to

provide assistance, whether in the form of providing foods, transport, funds, or in any of a wide variety of other ways.

Any supportive intervention by a family member may subtly alter the balance, both perceived and real, between

dependence and independence by person with a mental illness. In so many of these cases, the sufferer is a young adult,

already trying to arrive at a desired level of independence even as he faces the barriers posed by a mental illness.

I always ask family members to recollect when they themselves were between eighteen and twenty-five years old and

how open they were to receiving help from family members. Even when you were wise enough to accept help, didn’t

many of you wonder whether there were strings attached, or how much equity in your future decisions the person

helping out expected in return for her help?

Not every person I see articulates this dilemma clearly, but be assured almost every patient I see is wrestling with the

conflict of needing help but wanting to preserve autonomy. Illness can at times threaten autonomy at just the moment

when necessary help may also seem threatening to a person’s autonomy. Family should be aware that this issue is in the

air or even explicit in the treatment of their loved one and forms a backdrop against which family members’ attempts to

join the treatment may be seen. Therapists may themselves be forced to balance the desire to include family members,

who are often vital for the patient’s safety and ability to continue to receive treatment, against a patient’s fear that the

family will somehow “take control” of the therapy.

In turn, as a family member working with a loved one’s treatment team, it is important for you to ask yourself honestly

how much of what you bring forward as important is truly important in order that the patient achieve his stated goals,

versus how much feels important only in order that you get your needs met, e.g. that therapy will change the patient into

someone whose choices frighten you less. (Information integral to preserving a person’s life safety is critically

important to share with your loved one’s treaters, at all times, and should be counted as apart from the previous

statement – while your loved one’s imminently dangerous behaviors probably do frighten you, you are reporting because

grave injury or death may ensue if you don’t report.)

In order to play a useful role in your loved one’s treatment, you must begin with her goals, stated in her treatment, and

ways that she may wish for your assistance to achieve them. In this vein, your participation will be welcomed and

probably even beckoned into the treatment. Recognizing that in all areas other than imminent danger the desire to

include you must arise out of therapy (and not out of your own needs) and sharing that you have this understanding is

the surest way to open the door to your participation in your loved one’s treatment. Attempting to use the treatment in

any other way, while it may make sense in the smaller picture, is likely to make you less welcome in the treatment in the

larger picture. And, after all, being part of the treatment is the only way you will be able to tilt the playing field in their

favor and overcome the disadvantages the illness poses to them in the first place.


mailto:[email protected]



Board of Directors

Jennifer Jacquet-Murray

President

Irwin Lubell

Vice President

Nivia Dones

Secretary

Eva Hale Leighton

Treasurer

Christina Bauso

Diana Cusumano

Ann Dealy

Ken Kendes

Robert Laitman

Joan Perez

Michaele Rizzuto

Mary Schlageter

Daniele Vazquez

Annalissa Vicencio

Genna Woods

Director of

Development

Marie Considine

Program Director

Sharon McCarthy

Program

Administrative Assistant

Khalilah Morris

Office Administrator

& Newletter Designer

Karin Stinga

HELP US END STIGMA

The best way to end stigma is for NAMI Westchester to interact with the community. In the

past year we have done presentations at schools, colleges, hospitals, libraries, and churches.

If you know of a church, a library, or other venue who would be interested in hosting our

presentation, please ask them to call Sharon McCarthy at 914-592-5458. Remember that

there is no fee. The more people we educate the sooner we will end the stigma associated

with mental health.

WHY AM I A NAMI MEMBER? By Robert Latiman, MD

I joined NAMI because my dream is to give everyone the same opportunities that were af-

forded my son. Daniel developed a persistent psychotic illness before his 16th birthday.

Despite my wife and I both being physicians, we found mental health care to be a torturous

maze. It quickly became apparent that Daniel had a resistant form of Schizophrenia.

Nevertheless, he had to be subjected to four different antipsychotics, three at the same time,

until he finally began clozapine and started his recovery. We quickly learned what a

life-changing drug clozapine was for him. We also learned that there are no easy answers for

those with severe persistent mental illness. Clozapine was not the whole answer but just a

component of a complex solution to a complex problem. Mental illness can devastate people's

lives in so many ways. It came as no surprise that what we needed was an integrated

approach. We were blessed with the resources and Daniel was blessed by not having

anosognosia (the inability to recognize one’s illness). We were fortunate to treat him before

his psychosis deteriorated to the point where he was no longer aware of his illness. Daniel is

now living independently in Greenwich Village, after completing his four-year Bachelor's

degree from SUNY Purchase, and is pursuing his career as a stand-up comic.

Specifically we need new laws. In NYS, NAMI is advocating to require mental health

education to be incorporated into school health curriculums. Families are critical; so we are

actively supporting the paid family leave act. Anosognosia remains a major

impediment. Kendra's law compels those most in need of treatment to receive it. We need to

make this law permanent. Unfortunately, at this time, our biggest mental illness institutions

are jails. We are supporting bills to regulate the use of solitary confinement and improve the

treatment of mentally ill inmates. On the national level, NAMI continues to support The

Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which would reform HIPAA to make it easier

for families to stay involved, eliminate the IMD exclusion, toughen parity laws, create grants

to integrate physical and mental health care, support AOT, and create a new Office of

Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

Severe mental illnesses are brain disorders and are treatable, manageable, and

recoverable. We need to be relentless advocates and make sure that our loved ones get the

resources that they need. It is my hope that NAMI can influence legislation and research so

that all individuals suffering from these disorders may look forward to healthy, satisfying

lives.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“A child’s mental health is as important as their physical health and deserves the same quality of support.

No one would feel embarrassed about seeking help for a child if they broke their arm-and we really should be

equally ready to support a child coping with emotional difficulties.”

-Kate Middleton




NAMI SUPPORT GROUPS

Parents of Young Adults & adolescents:

3rd Monday, 7:30-9:00 pm &

4th Wednesday, 7:00-8:30pm

Family & Friends: 1st Monday, 7:30-9:00 pm

Family & Friends: 2nd Thursday, 7:30-9:00 pm

Family & Friends: 2nd Saturday, 10-11:30 am

Family & Friends: 4th Sunday, 12:30-2:00 pm

Spousal Group: 3rd Thursday, 7:00-8:30

Please contact our office at

914-592-5458 for more information.

NAMI CONNECTION PEER SUPPORT

GROUP MEETINGS

1st Tuesday 7-8:30 pm, Port Chester

2nd Tuesday 7-8:30 pm, White Plains

3rd Tuesday 7-8:30 pm, Tarrytown

4th Sunday 12:30-2:00pm, Bedford Hills

Please contact our office at

914-592-5458 for more information.

PRESENTERS NEEDED!

NAMI Westchester continues to get many requests from schools for our Ending the Silence presentations. In addition,

we are being asked to provide Parents & Teachers as Allies for presentations to school staffs. We also have initiated a

College presentation program for professors and college staff members. For the reason we are seeking presenters with

the following criteria:

Educator: This is either a teacher or pr incipal with a family member whose illness began while they were in

school.

They can be retired.

Young Adult: This needs to be a person under the age of 35 who star ted exper iencing symptoms of their illness

in High School and/or college.

If you fit either of these criteria and would like to help to end stigma through community presentations, please call

Sharon McCarthy at 914-592-5458.

RIBBON CAMPAIGN 2016

We have started our outreach to towns and villages to get permission to put up ribbons in recognition of May as Mental

Health Awareness Month. Ribbons will be put up the weekend of April 30 and removed at the end of May. We need

volunteers who are willing to help put the ribbons up. If you are interested, please send an email with your contact

information to [email protected] or call our offices at 914-592-5458.

Spring forward on March 13th Happy Spring!

With Daylight savings time, comes the reminder

to change the batteries in your smoke and

carbon monoxide alarms!


mailto:[email protected]



2016 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

FOR UPDATES GO TO www.namiwestchester.org or call our office at 914-592-5458.

DATE/TIME TOPIC/SPEAKER LOCATION

March 9

7:15 p.m.

Recent Advances in the Treatment of Schizophrenia

Dr. Nikhil Palekar

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Weill Cornell Medical College


Harrison, NY

April 13

7:15 p.m.

Marijuana, K2 and Spice-How Times Have Changed

Robert Anderson, LCSW-R, CASAC, CARC, CRPA

Executive Director

The Counseling Center at Yorktown Heights, LLC


Harrison, NY

May 11

7:15 p.m.

In Our Own Voices

Presentation by two individuals in recovery


Harrison, NY

May 21

8:30 a.m.

NAMI Walks Westchester For info and to register, sponsor,

donate: www.namiwalks.org/westchester

Rye Town Park,

Rye, NY

June 8

7:15 p.m.

NAMI Westchester: Where We Are and Where We Are Going!

Volunteer recognition and annual status of our organization


Harrison, NY

September 14

7:15 p.m.

Holistic Recovery

Annalissa Vicencio, MT-BC

Music Therapist-Board Certified

and Panel TBA


Harrison, NY

October 12

7:15 p.m.

Advocacy Update

Robert Laitman, NAMI Westchester, Advocacy Chairperson

Matthew Shapiro, NAMI NYS, Public Engagement Coordinator


Harrison, NY

October 19

4 p.m.

Let’s Talk-Conversations about the road to college and how to successfully

transition, maintain mental health wellness and resiliency

Kevin Hines, Keynote Speaker, author of

“CRACKED, NOT BROKEN”

Kevin shares his powerful story of survival after leaping from the Golden

Gate Bridge and living with Bipolar Disorder.

Westchester

Community College,

Valhalla, NY

November 9

7:15 p.m.

Guardianship and Trust Planning

Amy O’Hara, Partner

Littman Krooks LLP


Harrison, NY

December 14

7:00 p.m.

Annual Holiday Celebration: Art Expressions

from the Hands & Hearts of Persons in Recovery


Harrison, NY


http://www.namiwestchester.org

http://www.namiwalks.org/westchester



100 Clearbrook Road

Elmsford, NY 10523

(914) 592-5458

Nonprofit Org.

U.S. Postage

PAID

Permit No. 00796

White Plains, NY

NAMI WESTCHESTER MEMBERSHIP/DONATION FORM

FOR Membership: General ($35) _____ Open($3)______ FOR DONATIONS: Donation amount $________ NAME: ________________________________________Phone Number __________________________

Address___________________________________________City____________________State_____Zip__________ Email__________________________________________________________________________________________ PAYMENT INFORMATION: Enclosed is my check in the amount of $____________made payable to “NAMI Westchester”

For your protection, we are unable to process your credit card payment in our office. To pay with a credit card, please go to our website at www.namiwestchester.org and click on become a member.

Please send form and payment to: NAMI Westchester, 100 Clearbrook Road, Elmsford, NY 10523 or go on line at www.namiwestchester.org THANK YOU!

Going Green starting

in 2016!

Keep an eye out in

your email for the

notice that the news-

letter has been up-

loaded to our

Website www.namiwestchester.org

NAMI

WESTCHESTER

Has a new

FACEBOOK

page

https://

www.facebook.com/

NAMIWestchester.org

Be sure to

“Like” us!


The Official Newsletter of NAMI Westchester March 2016

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