NAMI Orange County Annual Meeting

NAMI ORANGE COUNTY, NC ANNUAL MEETING WAS A SUCCESS!
OUR PATHWAYS TO WELLNESS CELEBRATION AND DINNER FEATURED DALAI LAMA FOUNDATION UNSUNG HERO OF COMPASSION AWARD WINNER: SUE ETHERIDGE, MA
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NAMI Orange County, NC

2 days ago

This from Pete Earley's blog. Not a bad mission statement for any NAMI affiliage.

Promoting Liberty and Freedom: The Pathway to Dignity and True Mental Health System Reform
By Harvey Rosenthal
I have always viewed the service and support that we offer to each other as ultimately about promoting and protecting freedom and liberty, or better yet liberation. Liberation from the restrictions and limitations that told and still tell us that recovery ‘happens’ for just some people instead of being expected for everyone and that have been imposed at times on us by our field, our academic institutions, our families, friends, neighbors….and ourselves.
There are a number of freedoms to aspire and commit to and, in some instances, to celebrate today.
Freedom from discrimination, devaluation and ridicule from others and from the fear, shame and self-condemnation we impose on ourselves.
Freedom from attacks by some on choice, rights and privacy protections, especially around the right to choose or refuse treatment and where it’s delivered…and the freedom to have access to meaningful legal assistance and psychiatric advance directives.
Freedom to accept or reject diagnoses, terms like recovery or treatments that might limit how we define ourselves and the course of our lives.
Personally, I have found my own diagnosis, medication and belief in my own recovery to be extremely helpful…but that is my choice and are not factors that define who I am and discount the array of other strategies that I get to choose to heal, grow and sometimes to succeed.
That freedom didn’t exist just a short time ago and still doesn’t for far far too many
Freedom from being viewed as ‘non-compliant’ rather than as someone who was/is failed by the wrong approach, relationship and service.
Freedom from being either needlessly hospitalized or from being pushed out of a hospitalization we are finding to be helpful.
Freedom from being afraid to talk about feelings of suicide or of hearing voices.
Freedom from treatments that mistake trauma from ‘illness’ and the fail to provide hope and the right kind of support.
Freedom to take on the dignity of risk and the responsibility that comes with it.
Freedom to choose where and with whom one lives and how to spend one’s day.
Freedom to define gender preferences and identities.
Freedom from wrongful connections with being the attacker….and especially from being attacked, since we are 11 times more likely to be the victims of violence (why hasn’t this received the attention and study it so urgently deserves?).
Freedom from criminalization, from needless escalations, abuse, arrests, incarcerations, from the torture of solitary confinement….or brutal death.
And freedom from pernicious racism that separates, demeans, distances and that is too often connected to support and/or treatment that is either unduly aggressive if not coercive….or isn’t there at all.
Our work, the work of those who identify as peer service providers and those who don’t, is truly sacred work and a choice that so many of us make every day despite shamefully inadequate regard and compensation.
Sometimes it’s helpful to remember that a good deal of our compensation comes from our commitment and choice to advance freedom, liberty and social justice every day.
Harvey Rosenthal
NYAPRS Chief Executive Officer
Office: 518-436-0008; C: 518-527-0564
harveyr@nyaprs.org ... See MoreSee Less

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NAMI Orange County, NC

2 weeks ago

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NAMI Orange County, NC

3 weeks ago

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Dear NAMI Orange County Members and Friends of NAMI Orange,

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There is a stain upon the soul of our country. It has been there from our beginning and its continuous damage is brought into sharp relief during these chaotic times. The disproportionate toll of disease on Black and Brown communities; an unjust criminal justice system; the inequalities of access to social services, health care, quality schools, home ownership and work opportunity; this stain infects our families and communities. It spreads to those who live with mental illness as well.

Pete Earley writes on his blog about “Black Lives Matter” (BLM):

“There it is—disability—and, although BLM does not specifically mention mental illness, the BLM movement has time and again been outspoken and active in standing up for the rights of persons with mental illnesses when other advocacy organizations have been mostly silent. So I want to thank the BLM movement because I believe it has done a better job than any of the mental health advocacy organizations at peacefully, yet emphatically, calling attention to deadly threats faced by the seriously mentally ill – especially persons of color – in our communities at the hands of the police.”

NAMI Orange renews our commitment to advocate for more and better services and treatment for our members and community and call attention to threats faced by the seriously mentally ill. We strive to add our voices to ensure safer policing and increased trust between our community and law enforcement; and, open a dialogue to learn from those who have the “lived experience” of discrimination and social injustice.

As we weep with George Floyd, his family, friends, and the black community, we are resolved to continue to organize, plan, mobilize and collaborate to bring about change and set in place the legal and societal reforms needed to dismantle and end systemic racism. We appreciate your continued support and advocacy.

Respectfully,

Barbara Peet Maier, President NAMI Orange NC

and the NAMI Orange NC Board of Directors:

Laura Honeycutt, Megan Johnson, Kate Kryder, Barbara Maier, Tom Maier, Tony Marimpietri, Tora Taylor-Glover, Pearlie Williams ... See MoreSee Less

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