The challenger

the challenger

A publication of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Buffalo & Erie County

Vol 8 Number 3 ? Fall 2016

Mark Your Calendar

Family education meetings are held at St. Paul¡¯s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 4007 Main St., Amherst (near Eggert Rd.) on the

2nd ?oor (main entrance at the back of the church), on the 2nd Thursday of the month. The CITY family support meeting is the

3rd Tuesday of each month at Lake Shore Behavioral Health, 951 Niagara St., Buffalo, 14213. Two family support meetings are

held on the 3rd Wednesday of the month: NORTH - at St. Paul¡¯s, on the 1st ?oor (church entrance at ground level at left rear of

the building) and SOUTH - at Lake Shore Behavioral Health, 3176 Abbott Rd., Orchard Park, 14127. Board Meetings are held

at 636 Starin Ave., 1st ?oor, Buffalo, 14216; members are welcome.

October 2016

4 Tues NAMI Board Meeting, 7 pm

13 Thurs NAMI Education Meeting, Library

and Coffee Hour: 7 pm; Program at 7:30 pm.

Guest: KarlShallowhorn, Director of Community

Advocacy, Compeer of Greater Buffalo Topic:

¡°Bipolar Disorder Recovery: Personal Insights¡±

18 Tues CITY family support group, 5-6:30 pm

19 Wed NORTH and SOUTH family support meetings,

7-8:30 pm

November 2016

1 Tues NAMI Board Meeting, 7 pm

11 Thurs NAMI Monthly Education Meeting,

Library and Coffee Hour: 7 pm; Program: 7:30 pm.

Guest: Shelly Marabella, LMHC, NCC, Program

Supervisor MTS (Mobile Transitional Support

Program) Crisis Services Topic: ¡°MTS a New

Alternative to Re-Hospitalization¡±

15 Tues CITY family support group, 5-6:30 pm

16 Wed NORTH & SOUTH family support meetings,

7-8:30 pm

December 2016

6 Tues NAMI Board Meeting, 7 p.m.

NO NAMI Education Meeting in December

10 Sat Christmas is for Kids! annual holiday wrap

20 Tues CITY family support group, 5-6:30 pm

21 Wed NORTH & SOUTH family support meetings,

7-8:30 pm

President¡¯s Corner

Autumn Signals Change

This is a signi?cant election

year for many reasons but from a

NAMI perspective, it¡¯s all about

mental health issues. It¡¯s crucial

that NAMI members make their voices heard to elected

of?cials on the local, state and federal level. Legislators and

other government representatives are the people we must

persuade to support mental health reforms ¨C they hold the

purse strings. Not only do they need education about the

dysfunction within the mental health, they need to hear the

heartbreaking stories that only family members can tell. Facts

are critical for legislators but personal stories have even more

power to motivate them to action.

The feature article in this edition of our newsletter is an

excerpt from the 35 page report from the Treatment Advocacy

Center: Going, Going, Gone: Trends and Consequences of

Eliminating State Psychiatric Beds. You can access the full

report on their website:

about-us/our-blog

As the authors of Going, Going, Gone wrote:

Beds behind bars effectively bring the criminalization

of mental illness full circle-back to colonial times and the

early 19th century, when the mentally ill were routinely

jailed or kept in poor houses. We would not call it just

to incarcerate a man who crashed his car because he

had a heart attack behind the wheel. Why would a just

society incarcerate those with serious mental illness for

the equivalent?

Mailing Address ? P.O Box 146 ? Buffalo, NY 14223 ? 716.226.6264 (NAMI)

? E-mail: namibuffalony@

(Continued on the next page)

(President¡¯s Corner continued from the previous page)

The truth is that our nation not only has the highest

imprisonment rate in the world, but on an average day, 350,000

of those prisoners have a diagnosed mental illness.

The good news is that momentum is building across the

nation for mental health reform. Tim Murphy¡¯s HR 2646 was

a groundbreaking accomplishment in the House, even though

several components that NAMI supported were deleted, but

the passage of S. 2680 in the Senate is required before the ?rst

stage of mental health reform becomes a reality. Senator Kirsten

Gillibrand is already a co-sponsor of S. 2680 but Senator

Charles Schumer is not. Call Senator Schumer¡¯s of?ce today

and urge him to not only sponsor S.2680 but to use his powerful

in?uence to bring it to the ?oor for a vote in September. Call his

of?ce at 1-202-224-6542.

NAMI - NYS 2016 Education Conference

NAMI Buffalo & Erie County is now on Facebook. Thanks

to two ambitious graduate students, both NAMI members, Rob

Brandon and Katie Virag, who spent countless hours setting up

our own Facebook page : NAMI Buffalo & Erie County. You

can recognize it because of the Picasso-like sketch of a buffalo

drawn by Katie. When you are logged in, stop by our page

and give us a ¡°LIKE¡±. Information on our speakers¡¯ events and

support groups will be regularly posted. We look forward to

meeting you at our fall events.

Ann Venuto

President

New Horizons in Recovery:

Breakthroughs in Research and Treatment

November 11-13 at the Desmond

Conference Center, Albany, NY

Hotel

and

This year¡¯s conference will delve deeper than ever before

into four of the of the most crucial elements impacting

people living with a mental illness and their families in

a more in-depth manner than any previous NAMI-NYS

Conference. These issues are:

Recognizing and Addressing Trauma

Sunshine

This will be addressed during Friday afternoon

featured session which will explore trauma in children,

multicultural communities, in veterans and military

families and the criminal justice system.

Welcome!

To new board members Patricia Foster,

and Colleen Frey.

Suicide Prevention

A Big Thank You to:

Friday afternoon will feature the Zero Suicide Initiative

with four concurrent workshops on suicide prevention.

Our Family-to-Family teachers who started two new

classes in September: Daryl Bennett, Liz Carone,

Marcy Rose, and Bryan Taylor.

Mental Health in the Workplace and Broader

Employment Issues

The intrepid volunteers who work on membership

renewals and help with mail in the of?ce: Judy

Capodicasa, Liz Carone, and Colleen Frey.

This will be a major focus on Saturday with a panel

during lunch and workshops in the afternoon.

Continuing Well Wishes to:

The Need for Recovery Teams

to Jerry Keppel and Roger Watkins.

This core issue for NAMI¡¯s families will discuss the

importance of individuals¡¯ insight on their illness and

the need to work with their families and providers as a

recovery team. This will be addressed Saturday morning

with a presentation by Dr. Donald Goff and a panel

discussion on the bene?ts of forming recovery teams.

Thoughts and Sympathies to:

- Michele Brooks and her family in the recent loss of

her brother.

- the family of Joseph Reale, with deep appreciation

for the many gifts made to us in his memory.

More information on the conference at:

- Rose Gardner and her family in the loss of her

daughter, Diana Gardner-Williams.



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Alert: Senate May Take Up Mental Health Reform!

But only if we call now:

a strong position to see their provisions are kept in.

If they want to. But they might not. So ideally, we

D.J. Jaffe,

want the House provisions included in the Senate

Executive Director, Mental Illness

bill at the time it is passed. We want to add Cornyn¡¯s

After talking to various people, I now believe provisions, except for gun control.

that if mental illness reform can be separated

CALL AND ASK YOUR TWO SENATORS TO

from issues to expand or contract gun control,

PASS the Mental Health Reform Act of 2016 (S.

that the Senate will take mental health reform up.

2680) AND amend it to include AOT funding,

But leadership needs to know that it is a mental

HIPAA relief, IMD relief, and SAMHSA reform

health bill, not a gun control bill. Unfortunately,

including putting a doctor at the top.

Republicans want to attach provisions to push

second amendment rights and the Democrats want Ask them to include provisions in S. 2002, except

to attach provisions to limit gun possession. Both those related to gun control. Don¡¯t opine one way or

the other on gun control, just explain it is separate

approaches will prevent the bill from passing.

issue, and mental illness reform should not be held

With or without more or less gun control, people with

hostage to it.

serious mental illness need treatment. There is new

information that if pushed, both sides may now be PLEASE REACH OUT TO THE MOST

willing to drop efforts to attach gun provisions and IMPORTANT SENATORS

You will have to do so by phone or mail, as they do

pass it. We have to encourage that action.

Here¡¯s why I now think we can get S. 2680 passed.

not take email from non-constituents. Please call and

mail the following:

There is another problem or opportunity.

Sen. John Cornyn (R., State Majority Whip)

(Needs to be thanked for S.2002, but asked to keep gun

control separate)

517 Hart Senate Of?ce Building, Washington, DC 20510

(202) 224-2934

The Senate bill (S. 2680) is very weak. It

doesn¡¯t have many of the provisions of

House bill (The Helping Families in Mental

Health Crisis Act, H.R. 2646). But there are

several paths to get them in. The bill could be

amended. Powerful Sen. John Cornyn wants to

attach the ¡°Mental Health and Safe Communities

Act (S. 2002) to the bill. S.2002 has a lot of terri?c

stuff like AOT, but does have gun provisions

Dems won¡¯t accept. Alternatively, the Senate

bill can be reconciled with the House bill in

Conference (assuming Senate bill passes). The

House bill passed 422-2, so the house would be in

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., KY, Senate Majority Leader)

317 Russell Senate Of?ce Building, Washington, DC 20510

(202) 224-2541

Sen. Harry Reid, (D., NV, Senate Minority Leader)

522 Hart Senate Of?ce Building, Washington, DC 20510

(202) 224-3542

Sen. Chuck Schumer (important)

(D., NY, Presumptive party leader)

(Needs to be thanked for addressing mental health,

convinced to support AOT, and convinced to keep gun

control separate)

(Continued on the next page)

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Chris Murphy (D., CT)

is also involved but not in leadership

136 Hart Senate Of?ce Building, Washington, DC 20510

(202) 224-4041

(Schumer continued from page 3)

322 Hart Senate Of?ce Building, Washington DC, 20510

(202) 224-6542

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., TN)

455 Dirksen Senate Of?ce Building, Washington, DC

20510

(202) 224-4944

If we don¡¯t do this, no one else will. Seriously. So we have

to. We are the only ones speaking up for the seriously ill.

The House bill passed as a result of our efforts, and if we

Sen. Patty Murray (D., WA, Democrat Leadership)

(Needs to be convinced to add important provisions like

AOT, HIPAA, IMD and SAMHSA reform)

154 Russell Senate Of?ce Building, Washington, DC 20510

(202) 224-2621

make strong efforts, I have info that suggests we can get the

Senate to pass reform too. Thanks for all you do.

Tips for Calling a Congressional Of?ce

? Do not expect to be able to personally speak to Senator/Representative.

Ask to speak with the Legislative Assistant responsible for mental health legislation.

? Be prepared. Before calling, have your message written in front of you and review it

carefully¡­so you know exactly what you want to say.

? Identify yourself as a constituent (include title/position).

State purpose of your call, and keep the message simple and concise.

? Be courteous. Congressional staff work long hours - 10 to 12 hour days are not

uncommon - and have many demands and pressures on their time.

? Thank the staffer for taking your call and let him/her know you will follow-up.

Tips on Writing a Letter to a Member of Congress

? Be Direct¡­state purpose of writing (e.g. name/number of bill).

? Be Informative¡­identify yourself as a constituent (title, university).

? Be Constructive¡­offer recommendations (don¡¯t blame, accuse, threaten).

? Be Political¡­explain how issue affects the district/state/country.

? Be Discriminating¡­stick to one issue per letter (avoid ¡°laundry list¡±).

? Be Inquiring¡­ask how the Member stands on the issue.

? Be Available¡­let him/her know that you are available for follow-up.

? Be Appreciative¡­thank Member for considering your concerns/request.

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NAMI Buffalo & Erie County

Board of Directors

OFFICERS

Ann Venuto

President

Mental Illness:

Liz Carone

A Family¡¯s Perspective and

a Reporter¡¯s Re?ection

Vice-President

On September 18th, former NAMI president Marcy Rose

and award-winning Buffalo News reporter Matthew Spina

Judy Capodicasa

Michele Brooks

Treasurer

Recording Secretary

presented on ¡°Mental Illness: A Family¡¯s Perspective and a

Reporter¡¯s Re?ection¡±. The program included the showing

of a ?lm by Dr. David Pickar, adjunct in the Johns Hopkins

University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry,

Mary Lou Bond

Val Coniglio

Patricia Foster

Colleen Frey

Barbara Hoekstra

Jerry Keppel

Lynda Regan

Marcy Rose

Patricia Seifert

Jackie Thompson

Barb Utter

October 2-8, 2016 is National

Mental Illness Awareness Week

and a follow-up presentation and discussion with Ms. Rose

and Mr. Spina. The event was sponsored by the Social

Action Committee and the Brotherhood of Temple Beth

Tzedek as part of a series focusing on aspects of mental

illness. Programs like these help expose the realities faced

This nationally recognized week helps us call attention

to the need for improved care and programs, the unmet

needs of those living with mental illness and striving

for recovery, and encourages us all to get involved in

helping promote an end to the stigma that the topic of

mental illness too often draws. For more information,

visit the national website at get-involved/

raise-awareness/awareness-events/mental-illnessawareness-week or contact us at 716-226-6264.

by millions of people suffering from mental illness and

build understanding in our community about what happens

when those who need help and care don¡¯t receive them. We

are grateful to our hosts for this opportunity to collaborate.

ART SHOW TO SUPPORT BRAIN RESEARCH

Long time NAMI member and artist Kerima Collier

has announced the opening exhibition of her acrylic paintings

on Saturday October 29th from 4-8pm

at the Main St. Gallery (515 Main St.) across from the Hyatt.

She is giving the proceeds of the sale of her art to mental health research and

has invited NAMI to speak brie?y about our work at her event.

Please attend and support if you are able!

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