Volunteers are needed for the NAMI Butte County Affiliate.

Most positions are listed below (some are currently filled) but please apply for your preference as teams are encouraged:

President,

Co-President,

Treasurer,

Moderator,

Membership Chair,

Legislative Chair,

Speaker's Bureau,

Fund Raising,

Religious Outreach,

Housing Coordinator,

Forensic Coordinator,

Phone Bank-Chico,

Phone Bank-Paradise Area, and

Phone Bank-Oroville Area.

If you are interested in any of these positions please reply via e-mail or phone us at 894-8551.

We will review applicants at the March 18^th meeting and hold an election of these offices the following week.

OPEN LETTER

We are resigning our positions as Co-Presidents - NAMI Butte County - effective March 18, 2004 and we want to thank all of our supporters over the years since we incorporated NAMI Butte County in 1996.

It has been a privilege to serve our community and to educate ourselves as well as others through the years.. We have gained a great strength advocating for persons with mental illness, their friends and families. Remember: "Knowledge is Power".

Larry and I will continue as consultants and I will continue the newsletter for awhile.

Thank You,

Colleen & Larry Phipps

Restricted Access is Bad Medicine

By Don Hilty, MD

Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry,  UC Davis Dept. of Psychiatry

Advances in medical research result in new mental health treatments nearly every month, but states are implementing restrictive programs such as prior authorization (PA) to contain costs. PA limits what is covered by insurance, which severely limits the medications patients receive. In order for patients to gain access to these medications not on health plan formularies, physicians must wade through a tedious, time-consuming and bureaucratic appeal process to get treatments covered by their insurance. If the request is denied, there is often little recourse. Therefore, mental health patients may be left with treatments that don't work as well and which have more side effects.

Physicians recognize that each mental health patient is unique - government programs and insurance plans do not.

For example, differences in response to medication occur because:

I) patient symptoms respond better to one medication than another;

2) some medications have more than one action and a greater chance to relieve symptoms;

3) families have trends of response and side effects to medication; and

4) ethnicity affects response and side effects. Barriers to access such as PA undermine a physician's ability to treat based on efficacy, side effects, safety profile, personal medical history and family medical history.

Medications are not identical. First, contrary to popular belief, not all generic mental health drugs are the exact equivalent of their brand-name counterparts. The active ingredients must be the same, but the inactive ingredients can vary. Similarly, medications in a given class may have one action that leads to response, but other actions that lead to dangerous outcomes in a particular patient. Only a physician can determine which drugs will heal or hurt patients.

The right medication can offer hope to patients and their families. The wrong prescription medicine can make patients worse, leading to emergencies, hospitalizations, and other costly interventions. Any attempt to save money in the short-term by reducing medication availability saves the state nothing and risks the health of many patients.

NAMI California Connection Fall 2003

The jail system here is really bad. They do not give people their meds…the psychiatrist at the regional jail either doesn't order the person's usual medications or changes the whole regimen… or perhaps doesn't order them anything at all.

NAMI Leadership News Issue 7

The secret of the Brainchip

Psychosis is a serious condition that not only affects those suffering from the condition, but also their relatives, friends or caregivers. To help you deal better with the experience of psychosis, Psychiatry24x7.com has released the online serial: The Secret of the Brain Chip: A self-help guide for people


experiencing psychosis.
We hope this serial will serve as an anchor in periods of loneliness and confusion for all involved. Although this exceptional guide is not a replacement for therapy, it is a source of practical tips and dedicated information, as well as support. We trust you will find it helpful.

You can read this book on our site, or you can order the hard-copy version on-line.
www.psychiatry24x7.com

www.psychiatry24x7.com

Journals, Paintings Trace
Young Man's Journey into Schizophrenia

(January 4, 2004) - Adam Samec was a creative, sensitive and gentle child.

As a young man, he loved to paint and write music, songs and poetry. He taught himself to play guitar and dreamed of becoming an anthropologist. He was 20 when he killed himself. Adam left behind a devastated family, along with more than 30 journals, songs, drawings and paintings that reveal the inner turmoil, struggle and pain of his illness, offering insight into the thought processes of a young man diagnosed with schizophrenic affective disorder /depressed type.

"Looking at all of it, I think he left behind something very special that could help professionals in the mental health field and help parents who find themselves dealing with a child's mental illness," says Adam's mother, Vicky Reicks of Cresco. "I can't pack them all away. It's a gift he left behind, and within his writings, he left behind messages to me. He knew his mom would read these journals."

Adam shot himself on April 11, 2001.

Vicky couldn't bear to look at the journals until last winter, and what she read on page after tightly written page were not ramblings, but a kind of poetry, vivid word portraits tracing the chronology of her son's illness, the medications, the voices he heard in his head, the angels and demons who sat on the edge of his bed or hovered near the ceiling regaling him with tales, his intense loneliness and isolation, and eventually, his flirtation with suicide.

"I had grown ill over time, though I took my pills as a good boy should. I was fretting now terribly, unable to think, rest, my moody temperament coming forth. More pills, more days, it would all be better. Found little rest in my routine, knowing that my purpose was also to the point of breaking. ... Dosage after dosage of medication would not be allowed to take hold, for I was on the outside, severely incapable of change. ... The doctors had seen nothing but my dismal face and thus subscribed me to a long list of takers of a specific drug meant to target symptoms which I had, though the disease was all around a different story."

The notebooks, computer print-outs and loose-leaf binders are scattered across the dinner table. Passages are marked with yellow Post-it notes, where Vicky has made notations. This passage, she points out, is about practicing suicide, and this entry was written when Adam was hospitalized, and here is a direct appeal to his mother to forgive him.

"He was so lonely. Everyone went their own way in the end. He lost his friends, he lost himself and he didn't know what to do," Vicky says. "There is so much here, I think there's enough material for a book. I'd like to tell Adam's story in some way, to help other people because there is so much stigma attached to mental illness."

Adam was first hospitalized in 1999. The high school student had become increasingly withdrawn and his personality changed. With a mother's instinct, Vicky knew something was wrong. Although she respected his privacy, she sneaked a peek at his writings and was disturbed by what she read. A crisis was brewing, she felt it in her bones.

Vicky sought advice and intervention from doctors and guidance counselors. Adam's behavior was dismissed as a teen-age phase. He was going to school, had a girlfriend, held down a part-time job. She worried too much, and perhaps should seek counseling herself. Adam refused to see a doctor despite his mother's entreaties.

Then she received a phone call from his girlfriend's parents. Adam was having an anxiety attack and needed medical help.

"He was committed to Allen Hospital on Aug. 28, 1999, and that was the beginning of a long, painful and rough journey," says Vicky. He was hospitalized for 19 days and received electroshock therapy treatments for depression. In late 1999, he was finally diagnosed with schizophrenic affective disorder/depressed type.

www.healthyplace.com

Schizophrenia-Thought Disorders comm.

A Layman's Guide to Managing Fear

Using Psychology, Christianity and Non-Resistant Methods

The author through his research, including discussions with professionals in the psychology and religious fields, presents a general overview of several techniques that are effective in managing persistent fear.

This book describes three powerful but different approaches to managing fear: general counseling, psychological techniques and non-resistent methods--asking for God's Help.

Popovich's book focuses on result-oriented techniques and strategies that individuals can use to manage everyday fears, and presents this material in a clear and easy-to-read format.

Learn how to use all three methods at the same time, which will give you a broad spectrum and balanced approach in managing your persistent fears.

This book is not a substitute for the guidance of a professional, but simply a way to present ways you might never have thought about in managing your fear.

The website for this book is http://www.trebleheartbooks.com/mvStanPopovich.html

 FREE "BREAKING THE SILENCE" SCHOOL OUTREACH TOOLKIT

 

As many NAMI leaders know, NAMI Queens/Nassau developed Breaking the
Silence (BTS). The program has been extremely successful. BTS is an
innovative teaching package that includes lesson plans, games and posters on serious mental illness for three grade levels: upper elementary, middle school, and high school. BTS meets national health
education standards. Through stories and activities students learn the warning signs of mental illness, that mental illness can be successfully treated, and how to recognize and combat stigma. BTS is designed to put
a human face on mental illness, replacing fear and ridicule with compassion.
BTS recently received funding to write and disseminate a manual that includes successful outreach strategies for bringing BTS and mental illness education into schools nationwide. The Tool Kit and a limited supply of BTS for training purposes are now available FREE of charge at
www.btslessonplans.org.

 

The Tool Kit includes:
* Suggestions for organizing and funding a BTS educational outreach project
* Rationale for mental illness education
* Strategies for recruiting and training volunteers
* Suggestions for approaching colleges and universities
* Scripted dialogue useful with hesitant school personnel
* Mental illness facts, BTS testimonials, and other useful information

 

To get a FREE copy of the Tool Kit and BTS, visit
www.btslessonplans.org. For questions or comments on the BTS package, contact the program directly:

(email: btslessonplans@aol.com,

phone: 516-326-0797).

 

NAMI NATIONAL FRIDAY FACTS 02-27-04

 

TRAINING INSTITUTES     

JUNE 23 - 27, 2004.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA.
Developing Local Systems of Care for Children and Adolescents with
Emotional Disturbances and their Families: Early Intervention. In-depth, practical information on how to develop, organize, and operate coordinated, community-based, family-focused, culturally competent systems of care for children and their families and how to provide high quality, effective clinical interventions and supports within them.
Special emphasis on early intervention and providing mental health services to young children and their families. For more information, contact the National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health at Georgetown University, 3307 M Street, NW, Suite 401,
Washington, DC 20007,              (202) 687-5000, or email
institutes2004@mindspring.com,

or visit the website at
gucdc.georgetown.edu.

 

NAMI NATIONAL FRIDAY FACTS 02-27-04

Legislation Introduced in California for New Directions for Student Support
Because of its significance for new directions for student support, we are drawing everyone’s attention to the legislation just introduced in California by Leland Yee (who is the Assembly’s speaker pro tem). The bill, AB 2569, calls for adoption in all schools of a Comprehensive Pupil Learning Support System (CPLSS). The initial version of the bill is online and can be accessed at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_2551-2600/ab_2569_bill_20040220_introduced.html

 

Obviously, new legislation of this nature is difficult to enact the first time around. However, just having it in writing provides an important model for others (and one that takes the next step in refining Hawai`i’s CSSS legislation). If it passes, it will be a landmark piece of legislation.

 

Incidentally, there are now 29 organizations co-sponsoring the “Summits Initiative: New Directions for Student Support.” See the list on our website (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu) by clicking on the green button that takes you to the Summits materials. Additional organizations are encouraged to consider co-sponsoring the initiative which is now scheduling statewide summits across the country.

Howard Adelman & Linda Taylor
Co-Directors

School Mental Health Project/
Center for Mental Health in Schools
UCLA Dept. of Psychology
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563
(310) 825-3634 / Toll Free: (866) 846-4843 / Fax: (310) 206-8716
Email: smhp@ucla.edu
Web: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu

NAMI California President Chet Watson

 

TRIAD is a Treatment/ Recovery Information and Advocacy Database called "SHATTERED LIVES" - The Results of a National Survey of NAMI Members living with Mental Illness and Their Families.

The data summarized reflects the views of survey respondents: NAMI consumer members answered the survey questions pertaining to their experiences and family support and education; NAMI family members reported on their experiences with their family members who have a mental illness and their own education and support.

The complete report is on the www.nami.org website.

From the Criminal Justice Mental Health "Consensus Project" coordinated by the council of State Governments

www.consensusproject.org

American Psychiatric Association convenes meeting on mental health and criminal justice issues, with focus on fiscal dimensions

On Feb. 13, 2004, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) convened a meeting focused on the involvement of people with mental illness in the justice system, with a particular emphasis on the fiscal dimensions of the issue. The meeting was highlighted by presentations from leading researchers in this area, and from A. Kathryn Power, the Director of the Center for Mental Health Services, a division of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Building on the meeting, the APA's Committee on Jails and Prisons will be working to create a template for a broad-based educational effort aimed at raising public awareness, especially among policy makers at the local, state, and federal levels, with a special emphasis on the cost-effectiveness of maintaining and providing treatment in the community and preventing criminal justice involvement for people with mental illness when appropriate.

"This issue is a top priority of APA and all groups concerned with humane treatment in an era where resources are severely strained," says APA President Marcia K. Goin, M.D., Ph.D." The depletion of community mental health resources has led to a concomitant increase in the number of mentally ill in the judicial system."

In 2000, 33,000 suicide attempts in California were treated in emergency rooms or hospitals. Total costs exceeded $275 million.

Across the Country

An estimated 20% of all Americans will experience a diagnosable serious mental illness sometime in their lifetime. -Source, Mental Health: A Report from the Surgeon General 1999

Untreated mental illness affects a child's ability to learn. Less than 25% of children with emotional or behavioral disorders graduate from high school. -Source, The National Mental Health Association 2002

Individuals with mental illness are the largest and. the fastest growing group of people receiving supplemental social security income (SSI} and social security disability income (SSDI) payments: an estimated $25 billion is spent annually for these people. On the other hand, When adequate funding for mental health care is provided, disability is minimized resulting in reduced long-term costs. - Source, The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health

Depression costs the nation about $44 billion each year in indirect costs such as lost productivity as well as direct costs such as doctor visits and medications. -Source, the National Mental Health association, Labor Day Report from 2001

In California

5.4% or 1.3 million Californians have a serious mental illness. -Source, California State Department of Mental Health, 2000

40% to 90% of children in California's Juvenile Justice system have one or more mental disorders. Local juvenile detention facilities spend about $3,500 to house a child for a 27-day stay. The average daily number of youth in California's local detention facilities is 11,529 CYA spends $3,100 per month to house a child - and $1,750 more a month to treat each one with mental illness. One month in a state hospital for youth costs $10,000 and there are over 200 children in the state hospital each month. -Source, Never Too Late To Prevent Youth Crime and Violence, Little Hoover Commission, 2001

While less than 5% of the State's population suffers from mental illness, they comprise 10 to 20% of prisoners and an estimated 20 to 40% of the homeless population - altogether more than 50,000 individuals with a disabling mental illness live on and off the streets of California. -Source, AB 34 Report from 2002, California State Department of Mental Health

California's prisons and jails are now our de-facto mental institutions. We spend an estimated $1.2 to 1.8 billion on law enforcement dealing with people with mental illness. For roughly $35 to $50 per day, these same individuals can be provided with comprehensive mental health services that can ultimately lead to a return to employment and an ability to get off of public assistance. -Source, California State Department of Correction 2002 and the California State Department of Mental Health 2002

AB 34 (Steinberg, 1999) funds community mental health programs with voluntary outreach, access to medicines and a variety of support services for the homeless who suffer from a disabling mental illness. The initial investment of $10 million produced millions in savings by reducing hospitalizations and incarcerations. The resulting program expansion (in 2000) to 4,720 individuals in 34 cities and counties - produced a $23 million savings by an 81% reduction in jail days, a 66% reduction in hospital days and an 80% reduction in homelessness. 13% of the former homeless individuals are currently employed full-time.

-Source, AB 34 Report from 2001 and 2002, California Stare Department of Mental Health

Community supports for consumers and families in rural areas are very limited. There is a severe shortage of psychiatrists… as well as nurses who do psychiatric home care. {There is only} a single ACT team in the city… {yet} last summer…we discharged 30 people to the community knowing there was  no… service available to them. It was frightening and very unfair to the consumers.

NAMI Leadership News Issue 7

This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

Having trouble sleeping? Popping more antacids than usual? Or maybe you've had more colds this winter. Maybe these symptoms are related to stress.

Just about everyone has experienced a pounding heart, tense muscles and sweaty palms—the body's evolutionary "fight or flight" response when facing a threat.

It's a well-known phenomenon that a certain amount of stress can sharpen your mental prowess, and new research suggests that brief exposures to certain stressors may enhance the body's immune response. Though responses designed by evolution to protect us from predators may sometimes be useful, says Richard Sloan, Ph.D., director of the Department of Behavioral Medicine at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, they are counterproductive in many situations today.

Your body under stress

When you experience stress, Sloan explains, your blood clots more readily so you bleed less, and blood flows to your muscles so you can fight back with strength. This would be very helpful if you were being attacked by a lion, he says, "but it's not useful when your boss yells at you." There is considerable evidence to suggest that prolonged or frequent exposure to stressful events can increase our vulnerability to illnesses like depression, heart attacks, and the common cold.

Scientists are only just beginning to understand how this works, according to Firdaus Dhabhar, Ph.D., an assistant professor and neuroimmunologist at Ohio State University.

As he explains it, when our sensory organs encounter a potential threat, they transmit signals to the brain which, in turn, releases chemicals that stimulate nerves and glands throughout the body. In the adrenal glands—which are located near the kidneys—the brain chemicals induce the secretion of the hormones corticosterone and epinephrine, which stimulate the organs to act in various ways. The result is what Dhabhar calls "the typical stress response:"

The heart beats faster; The muscles tense;

Sweat glands are activated; Blood flow is diverted from the intestines to other parts of the body; Immune cells move from the blood to other organs.

Ordinarily, Dhabhar says, within three hours following the threat, "Everything goes back to normal."

The dangers of chronic stress

Under conditions of ongoing or repeated stress—such as continual worry and anxiety, a bad work situation, or medical illness—the body's "fight or flight" system gets "hammered," Dhabhar says. Constant stimulation leads to over-production of stress-related hormones and "the systems begin to break down." This, in time, can negatively affect the immune system.

According to Herbert Benson, M.D., chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, chronic stress can lead to:

Depression; Anger; High blood pressure;

Cardiac arrhythmia; Insomnia; Atherosclerosis; Infertility

Chronic stress can also increase the risk of heart attacks and make premenstrual syndrome and hot flashes more severe. Recent research suggests that high levels of stress can speed up the progression of AIDS and multiple sclerosis, and hinder the effects of medication.

Crying wolf

Repeated or constant exposure to stressors may also impair the brain's ability to evaluate whether a stress response is warranted and make it less able to regulate the response, according to a 1998 article in the New England Journal of Medicine by Bruce McEwen, Ph.D., of the Rockefeller Institute. This could be problematic at several levels—from the day-to-day management of average stressors to suddenly being faced with a situation that would normally call up the fight or flight response.

Recognizing there's a problem

To begin with, it's important to recognize the presence of stress-induced symptoms. The signs may include:

Excess anxiety; Stomachaches; Headaches

Diarrhea; Temper outbursts; Unexplained anger or crying spells; Nightmares or insomnia; Personality changes; Impatience

Reducing the stress

Change your situation
Do what you can to change stressful conditions, Benson advises. If they involve a relationship or workplace situation, he says, "more often than not, this is difficult to do."

Learn to relax
Benson advocates invoking what he calls "the relaxation response." This well-known technique, based on the principles of transcendental meditation, involves repeating a word, sound, prayer or phrase or performing a repetitive muscular activity. "When other thoughts come into your mind, let them go passively, and come back to repetition." According to Benson, who is the founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute, these activities have been shown to quiet the brain and to decrease blood pressure, heart rate, and the rate of breathing.

Change your outlook
Sloan suggests learning relaxation techniques such as biofeedback, and what he terms "cognitive restructuring," a method that involves questioning whether the physiologic reaction you are experiencing is rationally justified. "You may learn that your office is being moved and think 'that's the worst news I've had in years,'" he explains. By "reforming" the issue, you may decide it's not so bad—and your body will respond accordingly.

Practice remaining calm
Sloan also suggests rehearsing in advance how you will respond to a stressful situation. For example, if you need to deal with a difficult person, "figure out how you will address your concerns without yelling or provoking an angry attack and then practice these behaviors."

Seek help

Others suggest developing a network of family and friends to avoid social isolation, and seeking professional counseling if you need to.

Keep it simple
In Dhabhar's view, "Grandma's advice still stands." You should "eat good, wholesome food; exercise moderately and get enough sleep." This may seem "too simple," he says, but being in a state of healthy equilibrium helps you minimize the impact of stress and makes your body better able to fend off any immune challenges that arise.