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NAMI Education Programs

NAMI Education Courses

Our NAMI affiliate conducts educational programs through class and support groups. (Click here to see our most current schedule of classes.)

We also provide training programs for members who are interested in teaching a class or facilitating a support group. These training sessions are intensive three-day, weekend programs led by nationally trained members. And our affiliate is fortunate to have its own trainers for Family-to-Family teachers and NAMI CARE group facilitators. If you are interested in signing up for training to become a program teacher or support group facilitator, call 760-722-3754 or e-mail namincsd@pacbell.net, and someone will get back to you with details.

Family-to-Family Education Course
Peer-to-Peer Recovery Education Course
Family-to-Family Facilitator Training
NAMI Connection Facilitator Training
Parents and Teachers As Allies Education Program
In Our Own Voice Education Program

Family-to-Family Education Course

The NAMI Family-to-Family Education Course provides FREE education and support for families who have relatives with mental illness. It is a 12-week course taught by trained family members. All course materials are furnished at no cost.

The curriculum focuses on schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (manic depression), clinical depression, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The course discusses the clinical treatment of these illnesses and teaches the knowledge and skills that family members need to cope more effectively.

The Family-to-Family course topics include

Learning about feelings, learning about facts
Schizophrenia, major depression and mania: diagnosis and dealing with critical periods
Subtypes of depression and bipolar disorder, panic disorder and OCD; diagnosis and causes; sharing our stories
The biology of the brain/new research
Problem solving workshop
Medication review
Empathy workshop–what it's like to have a brain disorder
Communication skills workshop
Self-care and relative groups
Rehabilitation services available
Advocacy: fighting stigma
Review and certification ceremony

For information about future classes please contact the NMMI office at (760) 722-3754 or e-mail namincsd@pacbell.net. (Click here to see our most current schedule of classes.)

A few things to keep in mind

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Peer-to-Peer Recovery Education Course

Peer-to-Peer is a unique, experiential learning program for people with any serious mental illness who are interested in establishing and maintaining their wellness and recovery. The course was written by Kathryn Cohan McNulty, a person with a psychiatric disability who is also a former provider and manager in the mental health field and a longtime mutual support group member and facilitator. An advisory board comprised of consumer members of NAMI, in consultation with Joyce Burland, Ph.D., author of the successful NAMI Family-to-Family Education Course, guided the curriculum's development.

Mentors are trained in weekend-long training sessions and supplied with teaching manuals. Participants come away from the course with a binder of hand-out materials, as well as many other tangible resources:

An advance directive
A "relapse prevention plan" to help identify tell-tale feelings, thoughts, behavior or events that may warn of impending relapse and to organize for intervention
Mindfulness exercises to help focus and calm thinking
Survival skills for working with providers and the general public.

Each class contains a combination of lecture and interactive exercise material and closes with Mindfulness Practice (techniques offered to develop and expand awareness). Each class builds on the one before: attendance each week, therefore, is required.

The Peer-to-Peer Recovery Education Course topics include

Stigma and discrimination
Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Depression: Thoughts, Feelings, Sleep
Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Senses, Behavior
Story Telling
Language and emotions
Addictions, spirituality, medication
Coping strategies and decision making
Relationships
Empowerment, Advocacy

For information about future classes please contact the NMMI office at (760) 722-3754 or e-mail namincsd@pacbell.net. (Click here to see our most current schedule of classes.)

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Family-to-Family Facilitator Training

New teacher-trainees will be guided through an intensive 2 and 1/2 day Weekend Training Workship which is designed to replicate the experience that family members receive in the full 12 week course. It is carefully orchestrated to help teacher-trainees shift from a tentative commitment to the project and having doubts about capacities as teachers to a sense of entitlement that they can carry this life changing program out into the world. The Family-to-Family Education Teacher Training project is a trail blazing model where family members learn to teach "on their own". The curriculum in specifically designed to enable family member co-leaders to conduct a rigorous 12 week course without a professional in the lead role. The workship will cover the content of the classes and give you the basic skills you need to feel confident and enjoy yourself as a family education teacher.

For information about the next class please contact NAMI North Coastal office at (760) 722-3754 or e-mail namincsd@pacbell.net.

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NAMI Connection Facilitator Training

NAMI Connection is a self-help consumer support group led by consumers for consumers with any mental health diagnosis. The NAMI Connection program is looking for consumers in recovery who are ready to help others by becoming support group facilitators.

There will be a free training offered soon that will teach you the skills to co-facilitate groups that will help you to help others. If you are interested in being a facilitator, please contact: NAMI North Coastal office at (760) 722-3754 or e-mail namincsd@pacbell.net.

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Parents and Teachers AS Allies Education Program

Nami North Coastal San Diego County (NAMI NCSDC) is delighted to announce NAMI National's Parents and Teachers as Allies in-service mental health education program for school professionals. This program focuses on helping school professionals and families within the school community better understand the early warning signs of mental illnesses in children and adolescents and how best to intervene so that youth with mental health treatment needs are linked with services. It also covers the lived experience of mental illnesses and how schools can best communicate with families about mental health related concerns.

This program responds to the recommendations included in Goal 4 of President Bush’s New Freedom Commission report on mental health that calls for schools to play a larger role in the early identification of mental health treatment needs in children and in linking them to appropriate services. Our program is based on NAMI’s highly successful Parents and Teachers as Allies (P&TA) publication.

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.

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

6. Closing Remarks and Evaluation

This program is designed for teachers, administrators, school health professionals and others in the school community. Upon request NAMI NCSDC will facilitate an onsite Parents and Teachers as Allies education program. The program can be designed to meet time limitations of from 15 minutes to two hours. Also, Parents and Teachers as Allies Publication will be provided

To learn more about the Parents & Teachers as Allies Program as well as other school-based initiatives, click here.

For more information or to schedule a presentation please call the NAMI North Coastal office at (760) 722-3754 or e-mail namincsd@pacbell.net.

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In Our Own Voice Education Program

“In Our Own Voice: Living with Mental Illness” is an, EDUCATIONAL, STIGMA BUSTING, POWERFUL PRESENTATION that creates awareness and understanding about mental illness and the path to recovery. Two, trained presenters from NAMI San Diego share highlights from their journey with mental illness, providing tips and insights from their recovery. The speakers talk frankly about their journey with mental illness and their recovery. They use a NAMI National video in discussing their Dark Days, Acceptance, Treatment, Copping Strategies, Successes, Hopes and Dreams. The combination of live and videotaped speakers provides insights into the recovery from people with a variety of mental illnesses. The presentation is approximately 1½ hour long but can be adjusted for specific audiences. The presentation is both poignant and hopeful and you hear the truth about mental illness and recovery that you may not have heard before.

This presentation does a great job of increasing understanding and awareness of the realities of mental illness, as well as the excellent prospects for recovery. That's a message everyone can use, not just clients, so we will speak to any audience that will invite us. (Some clinicians have said that it reminded them of why they went into the profession.) The Presentation is FREE. To learn more or to schedule a presentation, please contact Ann Cummings at (760) 722-3754.

“In Our Own Voice” is appropriate for any audience. It is a powerful anti-stigma tool that changes hearts, minds, and attitudes about mental illness. Today recovery from mental illness is a reality that has far surpassed expectations of only a generation ago. In Our Own Voice underscores this recovery and the likelihood that people with mental illnesses can lead a meaningful and productive life.

“In Our Own Voice: Living with Mental Illness” is part of NAMI-North Coastal San Diego County’s Outreach Program and is offered at no charge.

To schedule a free presentation please contact, Ann Cummings at (760) 722-3754

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