BARNSTABLE – May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness Cape Cod and the Islands is providing an array of services to to help family members take care of loved ones suffering from mental illness.
“Our mission is basically to educate support and applicate. I call it the three legged stool, and our particular niche is with families and friends, we are not therapists, we are not doctors,” said Executive Director of NAMI Cape Cod and the Islands Jackie Lane.
Services that Nami provide include educational classes for families, support groups for family members, peer led support groups, recovery based educational classes, guest speaker appearances, advocacy for legislation, community outreach, member sessions, and an e-news bulletin.
All services are provided for no cost through capital accrued from membership dues, grants, donations, corporate sponsorships, and fundraising.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful on everyone, and has led to many people assessing their own mental health.
“The pandemic brought home the fact that mental health is more than serious mental health is more than just serious mental illness. Mental health is the stress the anxiety, the depression that all of us feel at sometimes on a daily basis,” said Lane.
During the pandemic, many of the classes and programs that NAMI provided had to be transferred to an online virtual format. However, with vaccination rates on the rise programs are slowly returning to in person.
Will Moore, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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