WILLIAMSBURG — NAMI Williamsburg — whose primary mission is to provide education, support and advocacy for people dealing with mental illness as well as their loved ones — will hold a free family-to-family course starting Sept. 10.
NAMI, or National Alliance on Mental Illness, is an organization with 600 chapters throughout the United States.
“The neat thing about NAMI is that all of our facilitators and most of the board members have lived experience, and that’s one of the requirements for any of our facilitators is that they must have lived experience with mental illness,” said Carmen Andreoli, President of NAMI Williamsburg.
Twice a year, NAMI hosts its family-to-family course, something NAMI highly recommends for any family, and especially those new to the mental health scene. The program is designed to provide information about different types of mental illnesses, different medications a loved one might be prescribed, and what comes next when living with mental illness.
All of NAMI’s services are free, including this eight-week course. Advance registration is required, and for security reasons, the location is not made public.
Additionally, to help raise funds to support NAMI’s free programs, it is also hosting its annual walk Oct. 4 at Veterans Park. For more details on that and how to sign up for the family-to-family course, visit the official website.
