It means teaching our children, so that if they are confronted with a mental illness in themselves, their families, or friends and neighbors,
they aren’t afraid or ashamed to seek help.”
Rosalyn Carter
... from her book,
"Helping Someone with Mental Illness:
A Compassionate Guide for Family, Friends, and Caregivers"
published by Random House
In our School Outreach program, trained family volunteers provide
lessons in schools to help students, parents, and teachers identify the
symptoms and treatments of mental illnesses and their impact on society.
The Religious Outreach (Faith-Net) program educates clergy and
congregations about mental illness to reduce the stigma and
misconceptions that prevail in the faith community. The Public
Awareness Program provides NAMI Orange County speakers and information
tables at conferences as another outreach to the community at large. A
Speakers Bureau provides speakers to community groups.
Program Description
The
School Outreach Program is especially appropriate for health, science,
and/or psychology classes to educate elementary, intermediate and
secondary students about biologically based brain disorders. A grade
appropriate, interactive presentation, enhanced by visual aids helps
clarify questions about some of the most commonly occurring serious
mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder
(manic-depressive illness), major depression, obsessive-compulsive
disorder (OCD) and panic/anxiety disorder.
Since the onset of many brain disorders occurs during these early years
of development, our School Outreach Program aims to demystify the topic
of mental illness. Trained
volunteers from diversified professions and backgrounds, persons usually
related to a loved one with a diagnosis of a mental illness, provide
presentations in classrooms, school staff meetings, and parent meetings
to equip their audience to better understand these diseases, identify
symptoms, and seek proper treatment. We are now reaching about 8000
students each school year, as well as teachers, parents, and other
school staff. We have reason to believe that some teachers are now
teaching lessons on their own.
If you wish to observe a presentation or have any questions, please contact
Kristen Pankratz:
(714) 544-8488 ex.108
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Please bookmark this site and refer to this site
for your presentation information / schedule.
