National Alliance on Mental Illness

Find Help, Find Hope

By Mike Michael | March 27, 2017     Cover Photo by: NAMI

This morning on Santa Fe Today we had the pleasure of visiting in the studio with Jessica Shover and David Gonzales with the local Santa Fe organization of the National Alliance on Mental Health.  Mental illness impacts a significant number of people here in New Mexico and today we found out about a wonderful organization that works tirelessly to shed light on this issue and assists those who are dealing in some way with mental illness, either themselves or family members and friends.

The local organization of NAMI is a virtually all volunteer organization that performs outreach and raises awareness and advocacy for those with mental illness and their families as well as helping direct those impacted by mental illness to available resources.   NAMI also provides educational courses and programs that help those who are assisting family members or friends with mental illness.

We spoke at length today about those programs and their fundraising walk event occurring on Saturday May 6, 2017 at Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque. Why participate in NAMIWalks? According to NAMI, “Because the walk helps us change how our communities view mental illness and recovery. By partnering with our community through NAMIWalks, NAMI is building capacity to address all the issues and barriers faced by consumer and family advocates.Being a community partner means working closely with leaders in business, healthcare, criminal justice, public and private education, and other community sectors that are affected by and can have a positive impact on how society deals with mental illness. Becoming a full partner in the community is just as vital to NAMI’s ability to reach out and help all segments of the population that could benefit from its advocacy, education and support programs.”

If anyone would like to get involved in this very worthwhile event or want to learn more about NAMI, check out their website at www.namisantafe.org or call (505) 466-1668.