Professional/Community Programs
- * NAMI Connecticut offers a number of programs to serve the needs of community and professional audiences. For more information on any of the programs listed here, please call the NAMI Connecticut office at: 1-800-215-3021.
The mission of public schools is to educate all students. However, children with serious emotional disturbances have the highest rates of school failure. Fifty percent of these students drop out of high school, compared to 30% of all students with disabilities. Schools are where children spend most of each day. While schools are primarily concerned with education, mental health is essential to learning as well as to social and emotional development. Because of this important interplay between emotional health and school success, schools must be partners in the mental health care of our children.
Schools are in a key position to identify mental health problems early and to provide a link to appropriate services. Every day more than 52 million students attend over 114,000 schools in the U.S. When combined with the six million adults working at those schools, almost one-fifth of the population passes through the Nation’s schools on any given weekday. Clearly, strong school mental health programs can attend to the health and behavioral concerns of students, reduce unnecessary pain and suffering, and help ensure academic achievement.
President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health; Goal Four
Provider Education Research
When mental health providers involve family members/significant others as part of the treatment team, the outcomes for the consumer and family members are only positive. According to Dixon, MacFarlane et al, the benefits of consumer, family member and provider collaboration include marked reductions in relapse and re-hospitalization rates for individuals served, improved vocational outcomes, improved sense of well-being and confidence among family members and reduced reported hostility.
Community presentations: NAMI Connecticut is available to provide community groups with information on mental illness – including specific disorders, and our organization. These presentations can be tailored to fit a group’s specific needs and time allotment.
Professional programs: NAMI Connecticut offers customized professional presentations and in-service programs to meet the needs of a specific organization. Depending upon the time involved, a professional fee may be required.
Parents and Teachers as Allies: An in-service program for mainstream educators and school professionals covering the neurobiological basis of mental illness, the signs and symptoms associated with early onset of serious mental illness in children as well as local and state resources to share with parents. The program is delivered by a trained panel consisting of a family member, consumers, and an educator.
Perspectives: NAMI-CT’s Perspectives is a one day educational program for mental health providers taught by a four member teaching team comprised of one person in recovery, one family member/significant other with a loved one living with a mental illness (FM), a mental health service provider who is also a family member, and a member of the organization or agency requesting the Perspectives program. The goal of the program is to help mental health providers better understand the lived experience of persons in recovery and their family members/significant others, resulting in effective and collaborative partnerships between individuals in recovery, family members and mental health providers.
Perspectives Comments
Mental Health Providers commented that they learned:
• “Next steps for fostering collaborative relationships with my clients and their family members.”
• “Help on how to integrate family members into treatment and ways to encourage patients to include family members in care.”
• “Enhanced person-centered practices for client success and wellness.”
• “Better ways to communicate with all involved in treatment and advocacy for people living with a mental illness.”
• “How to obtain support services for family members and what NAMI can offer.”
• “A better understanding and increased knowledge of the relationship between providers, family members and consumers.”
• “How to overcome barriers to collaboration.”
For information on this program please contact Ann Nelson at: familyresearch@namict.org
