NAMI walk supports mental health education
When a child or loved one develops a mental illness, it can blow the entire family off course, said Allen Giese. That’s where NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, serves as a guiding light.
Families need to find services early on, Giese said. NAMI programs offer lifesaving guidence and peer-to-peer support.
Its “soup to nuts crash course in understanding mental illness is absolutely invaluable,” he said. “Understanding has to start at home. So many people push kids out into the streets, literally.”
Giese, a NAMI board member and president of Northstar Financial Planners, spoke recently at the NAMIWalks Broward kickoff luncheon in Fort Lauderdale.
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel and Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein joined him and are the walk’s honorary chairmen.
NAMIWalks, the nonprofit’s fifth annual fundraiser, takes place Saturday, Nov. 11, at Tradewinds Park, 3600 W. Sample Rd. in Coconut Creek. Teams, individual volunteers and donors are needed to maintain its mission.
“NAMI’s primary focus is to eradicate the stigma attached to having a mental illness,” Giese said. “It’s a disease like anything else, like heart disease or cancer.”
But unlike cancer treatment where folks will bring over casseroles and sit with you, when mental illness strikes people stop calling, he explained.
“You lose your friends. People are afraid because they don’t understand it,” he said.
Another NAMI service is its crisis intervention training for first responders. Police are often called to deal with a person who is experiencing a psychotic episode. Their response can make the difference between life and death.
“I’m fairly certain that has saved my son’s life,” Giese said of his 26-year-old son who was diagnosed at age 18 and is working toward recovery.
About 400 attended the kickoff luncheon at the Embassy Suites, said walk manager Edna Einhorn.
“We touched a lot of people’s hearts when we told stories about how NAMI has helped thier family,” Einhorn said. “Familes don’t know where to go for for help, and NAMI provides encouragement and training.”
For more information about NAMIWalks 2017, visit www.namibroward.org or call 954-258-3990; email Edna@NAMIBroward.org.