May is National Mental Health Awareness Month

I had the chance to staff a table at NAMI/Glendale’s screening of the movie, “Call Me Crazy.”  NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  The only statistic I knew was 90% of people who die by suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder, though not all are diagnosed or treated. That night I learned more. Nationally, one in four adults, approximately 57.7 million Americans, experience mental health disorders each year, 10% of children and adolescents suffer from serious emotional and mental health disorders, and one in five families have a loved one who suffers from mental illness.

Here’s help:

NAMI’s free six-week education classes for parents and caregivers of children and adolescents living with mental illness begin on Sunday, May 25.  For more information – like the time (it wasn’t on the flyer) – contact Cory Townsend at (949) 547-3519 or cory@namilaccc.org.

NAMI Family-to-Family is a free 12-week course for family members. For more information, visit www.nami.org, email info@nami.org or call (800) 950-NAMI (6264).

The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) Los Angeles Northeast offers free support group meetings for people with these illnesses every Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Vallejo Drive Adventist Church, room 106, 300 Vallejo Drive, Glendale. For more information, visit www.dbsaloaangelesne.org, email dsbalosangelesne@yahoo.com or call (818) 352-4346.

The GUSD Office of Student Services, Healthy Start has provided school counseling offices with free drug testing kits that can be used at home to check for six substances. Please note, the school is not testing your child, you are.  GUSD provides this service as a way for you to talk to your child. Kits are also available at the GUSD Administration Building, 223 N. Jackson Street, Glendale in room 101.

You’re cordially invited to our next Strategic Partners quarterly meeting on Friday, June 6 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in council rooms A & C.  We’ll hear from Dr. Richard Sheehan, GUSD superintendent, and John Furay, PhD, J.D., director/hearing officer, Probation Dept.

RSVPs are encouraged, but not required, at info@cv-alliance.org.
Suzy Jacobs, Executive Director,
CV Alliance
3131 Foothill Blvd. Suite D
La Crescenta, CA 91214
(818) 646-7867  http://cv-alliance.org/

  Suzy JACOBS