School Presentations

We are pleased to offer two programs to support Teachers in the Santa Cruz County.  Parent and Teachers as Allies is a short presentation geared towards teachers and parent groups.  Ending the Silence is a 50-minute presentation created for middle and high school students.  It would fit nicely into a health, psychology or social science class.  Please read more below.
Ending the Silence is a 50-minute program designed for high school audiences and is typically presented in the freshman/sophomore health classes during the mental health portion of the curriculum. This transformational program is devoted to giving students an opportunity to learn about mental illness through an informative PowerPoint, short videos, and personal testimony. Through the presentation, students learn symptoms and indicators of mental illness, and are given ideas about how to help themselves, friends, or family members who may be in need of support.
HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS:

The program is delivered by a trained two-person team, including an individual who relates to the student population by sharing his or her own journey with a diagnosable mental health condition.

Students are given a resource handout with valuable phone numbers and websites for mental health agencies and youth support services along with a list of symptoms/warning signs of mental illness. At the conclusion of the presentation, a letter goes home to parents informing them of the program with information regarding additional programs and services they can utilize for support.

A primary goal of this program is to create a generation of students who are well-positioned to eradicate the stigma associated with mental illness through education and advocacy.

HOW CAN I BRING ENDING THE SILENCE TO MY SCHOOL?

Contact Hemie Ramirez, NAMI Youth Outreach Manager, at (831) 824-0406; or email: hemie@namiscc.org to learn how you can bring this educational program to your classroom. 

For additional information on the Ending the Silence Program, please visit http://www.nami.org/Find-Support/NAMI-Programs/NAMI-Ending-the-Silence
This presentation focuses on helping school professionals and families better understand the early warning signs of mental illnesses in children and adolescents and how best to intervene. It also covers the lived experience of mental illnesses and how schools can best communicate with families.
The components of the in-service education program for school professionals include the following:

  1. Welcome and Introductions – an education professional, who is also a family member, welcomes the school professionals and introduces the topics to be covered, often with a personal story.
  2. Early Warning Signs of Mental Illnesses – a facilitator walks the school professionals through the early warning signs of mental illnesses, closely following the P&TA publication.  We also include ideas to create a supportive environment in the classroom.
  3. Family Response – a parent or caregiver of a child with mental illness covers the predictable stages of emotional reactions among family members dealing with the challenges of mental illness and the lived experience of raising a child with a mental illness.
  4. Living with Mental Illness – a mental health consumer that experienced the early onset of mental illness shares a view from the inside, including a discussion about the positive and negative impact that their school experience had on their life.
  5. Group Discussion
This program is designed for teachers, administrators, school health professionals, parents and others in the school community. 

HOW CAN I BRING "Parent and Teachers as Allies" TO MY SCHOOL?

Contact our office at 831-824-0406 or hemie@namiscc.org to learn how you can bring this educational program to your school. 

Useful Information

IEP Tips for Teachers and Parents
(This is an 82 page booklet)
ieptips.pdf
File Size: 4001 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Recommendations on Helpful Ways for School Professionals and Families to Talk about Mental Health Related Concerns
recommendations.pdf
File Size: 83 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

    I'm interested in learning more about the Student Mental Health Advocacy Council

    NAMI is sponsoring a youth-led council and  social movement whose mission is to raise awareness and erase the stigma and discrimination around mental illness.