National Alliance on Mental Illness

Board of directors2013-2014

executive committee:Sue Guffey - President

Ricky Hatcher - 1st Vice PresidentJimmy Walsh - 2nd Vice President

Micah Mobley - SecretaryDr. Joel Willis - TreasurerShannon Byrd - At Large

Joan Elder - At LargeWill O’Rear - Ex-Officio

Board Members:Dr. Pippa Abston

Dr. Teruko BredemannChristi CollinsD.G. EwingPatti Ford

Dr. Nelson HandalDaisy Hollingsworth

Zina MayJane Nichols

Eleanor RohlingAna Maria SawyerCaroline Titcomb

Ruthie WarrenMichelle Alcathie-White

Lifetime Members:Rogene ParrisAnnie SaylorAnn Denbo

Sylvia Richey

staff:Wanda Laird – Executive Director

Ethel Green – Assistant to Exec. DirectorRoxann Becker – Financial/Office Assistant

William Luckie – Bookkeeper

PArtNer

Inside This Issue...• NAMI Family to Family Signature Program

• Message from the President

• Crisis Intervention Team Training Photos

• Annual Meeting – Board and Award Nominations

• National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

find HeLp. find Hope.VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2 • May 2014

• Medicaid Agency Pharmacy Program• NIMH article, “Channel Makeover

Bioengineered to Switch Off Neurons”• NIMH Director Honored by Brain & Behavior

Research Foundation (BBRF)• Schedule of Events

naMi alabama family to family training

We are proud of our NAMI Family to Family Signature Program. Affiliates around the state are conducting more classes each year. We invite everyone to sign up for this 12-week course which provides insights into, and resolution of, the profound concerns experienced by families, close relatives, and friends as they strive to cope with the realities of serious mental illness. Caregivers not only learn a wide range of information about serious mental illnesses; they also learn to un-derstand how living with these conditions affects their loved one. The course is taught by trained NAMI family members who have relatives with mental illness. It follows a structured format cover-ing issues frequently faced by families dealing with mental illness. We are also proud of the fact that last year, Family to Family was added to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practice (NREPP).

Below is a photo of the participants that were trained in April to conduct Family to Family classes. We were happy to have several individuals from Florida and one from Georgia to join us for the training. The NAMI Alabama affiliate representatives are excited to begin a class in their area in the near future. Please contact them and sign up for this course to gain knowledge and skills that help family members cope more effectively.

NAMI Alabama Family to Family Training1st Row (seated in front) L to R: F2F Trainers Dr. Linda Miller and Sue Guffey

2nd Row (seated) L to R: Ramona Willingham (NAMI Centre), Jenni Currie (NAMI Baldwin), Vonnie Beall-Hamilton (NAMI Baldwin), Denise Crump (NAMI Marshall), Sharon Holmes (NAMI Centre),

Rita Tise (Spring Hills, FL), and Georgena Dopyera (Pensacola, FL)

3rd Row (standing) L to R: Tina Butts (Temple, GA), Dorothy Willingham (NAMI Centre), Mary Jane Horton (NAMI Winston), Laurie Griffin (NAMI Shelby), Don and Beth Price (NAMI Centre),

Anne Marquis (Spring Hill, FL), Jane Davis (Inglis, FL), Kellie Angeline (West Melbourne, FL), and Ellen Audelo (Melbourne, FL)

2

Message from the PresidentMany thanks to everyone who participated in the Crisis Intervention Team Training held in April. We were pleased to partner with the Alabama Crime Prevention Clearinghouse & Training Institute at Auburn University at Montgomery. It was an honor for Commissioner Jim Reddoch and me, along with Linda Wright, Director of the Alabama Crime Prevention Clearinghouse & Training Institute and Director of Operations, Division of Continuing Education, to present the certificates and lapel pins to the 39 graduates.

The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program is a community partnership consisting of law enforcement officers, mental health providers and mental health consumers and family members. All community partners work together to understand mental illness, invest time and effort to avert crisis, and de-escalate crisis and direct the consumer to appropriate care.

Graduates from various agencies are as follows:

Alabama Department of Public Safety – Yancy AutreyAlabama State University Police Department – Alan B. AshleyAlexander City Police – Luther NicholsAUM Campus Police – Renee E. Powell-WhiteBaptist Health Security – Willie A. McCordMontgomery County Detention Facility – Sonja Alexander, Johnnie Andrews, Tamberly Garner, Janice Hardy, Gwen Rogers, and Robert WashingtonMontgomery County Sheriff’s Office – Jorge R. Crawford, Wendy J. Briggs, Thomas Griffith, Dave O. Watson, Jr., Cedric D. Leonard, Maxwell E. Madrid,

Etta T. Matthews, and John C. MoodyMontgomery Police Department – Jamail D. Copeland, Mike E. Evans, John K. Mackey, Roderick A. Montgomery, Alix D. Payne, Henri B. Powe,

Patricia A. Richardson, Reuben Rogers, Donna Burns, Lora-Ane Love, and Quentin WilkinsPrattville Police Department – Melissa JonesState Department of Public Safety – Rita F. ChatmanTroy Police Department – Jerick Cooper, Lindsey Garner, and Hope GriffinTuscaloosa Police Department – Darren J. Grimes, Daniel C. Parker, John T. Sexton, and Jeff Curvin Sergeant Melissa Beasley of the Florence Police Department did a great job in working with the participants each day, as well as working with Linda Wright, in coordinating the de-escalation techniques. Each of the following presenters did a wonderful job in educating the participants on topics from Signs and Symptoms of Mental Illness to Mental Health Resources: Dr. Cindy Bisbee, Dr. Paul Bisbee, Ana Maria Ramirez Sawyer, Shannon Byrd, Daniel Williams, Henry Parker, Margaret Faulkner, and Tommy Klinner. The following individuals assisted with various tasks including the de-escalation techniques: Carla Lymon-Howze, Clara Taylor, Margaret Faulkner, Dr. Ed Wright, Ethel Green, and Roxann Becker.

We are pleased with the interest and participation of individuals who are not only interested in taking our Signature Program classes; but, also individuals who are interested in teaching our classes. As you can see from the cover story, our Family to Family program is one of the most popular classes. We are proud of those who step up to the plate to help other family members learn how to cope with many difficult situations. Jackie Milton and Joan Elder will conduct a Family Support Group training in Montgomery July 11-13. Please check with your affiliate if you are interested in the training as the deadline for applications is June 18. Each year we conduct a state-wide training for the majority of our programs. We are looking forward to helping schedule group sessions for those who recently graduated from the Connection training. Eleven Connection groups have been meeting around the state. An updated list will be e-mailed to the membership as soon as possible.

We have participated in many events this quarter including the Visionary Guild Exhibition in Selma. The artist and writers were most impressive. We commend Ann Denbo and Sylvia Richey, President of the Visionary Guild, in conjunction with the Office of Consumer Relations of the AL Department of Mental Health, Wings Across Alabama, The Minority Council, and Alabama Peer Support Association (APSA) for coordinating the event.

Please see our schedule of events and note that July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. A screening of Hidden Pictures, a one-hour documen-tary, will be held at Alabama State University on July 10 in the auditorium of the Ralph Abernathy Building at 5:00 p.m. Affiliates wishing to show the film should contact the office staff at 334-396-4797.

Please join us in supporting as many events and activities as possible. In particular, we need your support with our first state-wide NAMIWALK which will take place September 26, 2015 at the Wynton Blount Cultural Park in Montgomery. We will send an email as soon as our Walk site is available to accept sponsorships and team participation. Jane Nichols, our Walk Chairperson, and Wanda Laird are looking for a Walk Manager. Individuals interested in applying should send a resume to wlaird@namialabama.org.

Congratulations to our NAMI Mobile affiliate for conducting a successful NAMIWalk on May 17 at Spring Hill College in Mobile. They raised $55,000 which sur-passed their goal of $50,000. It was a wonderful team effort. We commend NAMI Mobile President Zina May and all of the participants!

We look forward to seeing everyone August 21-23 at the NAMI Alabama Annual Meeting in Montgomery. Our theme is Advocates for Change: From Dialogue to Action. The agenda will be posted on our website at www.namialabama.org. Nominations for NAMI Alabama Board of Directors are due by May 27 and the deadline for award nominations is July 15 (see nomination instructions for both in this newsletter).

Advocates for Change,

Sue GuffeyPresident

3

Crisis Intervention Team Training

Dr. Paul Bisbee and Dr. Cynthia BisbeeCC Bisbee & Associates, LLC

Daniel WilliamsNAMI Alabama Veteran’s Military Council

Representative

Ana Marie Ramirez SawyerNAMI Alabama Hispanic Coordinator

Crisis Intervention Team Training Participants

Sue Guffey, NAMI Alabama President and Tony Monroy, Investigator,

Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office arrive for the CIT graduation

Commissioner Jim Reddoch, AL Dept. of MH and Sgt. Melissa Beasley, Florence Police Dept.

Henry Parker, Executive Director Montgomery Area MH Authority

Tommy KlinnerGeneral Counsel, AL DMH and

Assistant Attorney General, State of AL

Shannon ByrdGrants and Public Policy Coordinator

AL Department of MH

4

Ethel Green, NAMI Alabama Assistant to Executive Director and Roxann Becker, NAMI Alabama Financial/Office Assistant

NAMI Alabama/AUM

Crisis Intervention Tea

mCIT

Carla Lymon-Howze, Sr. Program AssociateDiv. of Continuing Education

Auburn University at Montgomery

Clara Taylor, Sr. Administrative Assoc.Div. of Continuing Education

Auburn University at Montgomery

Margaret Faulkner, Training CoordinatorDivision of Continuing Education

Auburn University at Montgomery

Linda Wright, Director, AL Crime PreventionClearinghouse & Training Institute and Director of Operations, Division of Continuing Education

Auburn University at Montgomery

1st Row (seated on floor) L to R: Angela Wilson, Ramona Willingham, Cuddell Ollis, Nelda West, Jerry Owensby, Donnie Keener, and Dorothy Willingham

2nd Row (seated on sofa) L to R: Gail Roden, Judy Garmany, Sharon Holmes, Richard Grimes, Mary Owensby, June Ellis, Rochelle Keener, Chris Tipton, and Becky Nelson

3rd Row (standing) L to R: Beth Price, Don Price, Doug Ford (teacher), Sue Guffey (teacher), Marsha Bachelor, Joe Bachelor, and Buddie Norton

NAMI Centre

5

Training

1st Row L to R: Beverly Parker, Connection Coordinator and State Trainer, Imogene Harris, NAMI Georgia State Trainer, Nick Snead (NAMI Huntsville), Debbie Sanders

(NAMI Montgomery), Robert Tigue (NAMI Montgomery), and Helena Doering (NAMI Birmingham)

2nd Row L to R:Jasper Norwood (NAMI Montgomery), Tyler Kramer (NAMI Wiregrass), Iris Walker (NAMI Birmingham),

Elise Goubet (NAMI Tuscaloosa), Rachel Mears (NAMI Tuscaloosa), and William Ruff, Resource Representative

(NAMI Birmingham)

NAMI Alabama 2014 Board NominationsNominating Committee members, Joan Elder (NAMI Shelby), Nick Snead (NAMI Huntsville), and Betty Hooper (NAMI Winston) request that all Board nominations

be e-mailed to wlaird@namialabama.org by May 27. A ballot will be e-mailed to the membership by June 3. Several current Board members who are eligible to run for various term limits are shown below in the number of slots available.

There will be three slots for a three-year term: Joel Willis plans to run. There will be one slot for a two-year term: Patti Ford plans to run.There will be four slots for a one-year term: Dr. Nelson Handal, Jane Nichols, and Ana Maria Ramirez Sawyer plan to run.

Board members will be recognized during the 28th NAMI Alabama Annual Meeting which will be held August 21-23 at the Drury Inn in Montgomery. A nomination form has been e-mailed to all affiliate presidents.

NAMI Alabama 2014 AwardsAwards for the following categories will be presented during the 28th NAMI Alabama Annual Meeting which will be held August 21-23 at the Drury Inn in

Montgomery. Award Committee members, Caroline Titcomb Parrott (NAMI Tuscaloosa), Davey Chastang (NAMI Mobile), and Doug Ford (NAMI Centre) request that nominations for the following awards be e-mailed to wlaird@namialabama.org by July 10. A nomination form has been e-mailed to all affiliate presidents.

Media Award • Friend of the Court • Lifetime Achievement Award • Rogene Parris Family Member of the Year • Newspaper of the YearShining Star Affiliate Leader • Shining Star Affiliate • Mental Health Professional of the Year • Criminal Justice Award of the Year • Legislator of the Year

Consumer of the Year • Outstanding Advocate of the Year • Multicultural Faith Based Advocate Award • Special Recognition Award(s)

Visionary Guild

Ben Arthur NAMI Montgomery member

shows artwork displayed at the exhibition in Selma

L to R: Gina Gregory, Honorary Chairperson and President of the Mobile City Council,Zina May, NAMI Mobile President, and

Susan Pickard, Walk Manager and Independent Public Relations and

Communications Professional

NAMI MobileWalk Leaders

6

Medicaid Agency Pharmacy Program

The Alabama Medicaid Agency has modified the current three-month maintenance medication and monthly prescription limit policy.

• Effective May 1, 2014, drugs on Medicaid’s three-month maintenance medication list will be excluded from the monthly five-prescription limit for adults.

• This exclusion is regardless of whether the claim is for a three-month supply or a one-month supply (during the first 60 days to establish stable therapy).

• Children and Long Term Care recipients remain excluded from the monthly prescription limit.

NAMI Alabama Donations

Memorials

NAMI Centre in memory of Mary Milinski

NAMI Centre in memory of Bert Latham

Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell, P.A. in memory of Rachel Alexander

Jimmy Walsh in memory of Rachel Alexander

Honorarium

Sue Guffey in honor ofDon and Wanda Laird

National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. We will partner with Alabama State University to celebrate on July 10 with the showing of the film Hidden Pictures, a one-hour documentary followed by a panel discussion. The free event will be held in the auditorium of the Ralph Abernathy Building at 5:00 p.m.

National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month began in 2008 when the U.S. House of Representatives proclaimed July to be National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in honor of Bebe Moore Campbell, an accomplished author, advocate and co-founder of NAMI Urban Los Angeles, in recognition that:

“Improved access to mental health treatment and services and public awareness ofmental illness are of paramount importance.” The month’s purpose is to: “enhance

public awareness of mental illness and mental illness among minorities.”H. Con. Res. 134, May 2008, sponsored by Fmr. Md. Rep, Albert Wynn

BeBe Moore Campbell received NAMI’s 2003 Outstanding Media Award for Literature for the book Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry, written especially for children, about a young girl who learns how to cope with her mother’s bipolar illness. In 2005, her novel 72-Hour Hold focused on an adult daughter and a family’s experience with the onset of mental illness. The book helps educate Americans that the mental illness struggle often is not just with the illness, but with the health care system as well.

Bebe Moore Campbell passed away in 2006 after a battle with brain cancer. In 2005 she wrote:

“Once my loved ones accepted the diagnosis, healing began for the entire family, but it took too long. It took years. Can’t we, as a nation, begin to speed up that process? We need a national campaign to de-stigmatize mental illness, especially one targeted toward African-Americans. The message must go on billboards and in radio and TV public service announcements. It must be preached from pulpits and discussed in community forums. It’s not shameful to have a mental illness. Get treatment. Recovery is possible.”

7

Channel Makeover Bioengineered to Switch Off NeuronsLeaps Orders of Magnitude Beyond Existing Tools – NIH StudyApril 24, 2014 • Press Release

Scientists have bioengineered, in neurons cultured from rats, an enhancement to a cutting edge technology that provides instant control over brain circuit activity with a flash of light. The research funded by the National Institutes of Health adds the same level of control over turning neurons off that, until now, had been limited to turning them on.

“What had been working through a weak pump can now work through a highly efficient channel with orders of magnitude greater sensitivity for impact on cell function,” explained Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D., of Stanford University, Stanford, Califor. It is like going from a squirt to a gushing hose.

Deisseroth and colleagues report on what is being hailed as a marvel of genetic engineering in the April 25, 2014 issue of the journal Science.“This latest discovery by the Deisseroth team is the type of neurotechnology envisioned by President Obama when he launched the BRAIN Initiative a year ago,” said Thomas R. Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health, a funder of the study. “It creates a powerful tool that allows neuroscientists to apply a brake in any specific circuit with millisecond precision, beyond the power of any existing technology. This will be vital for understanding brain circuits involved in behavior, thinking, and emotion.”

Deisseroth’s team had pioneered the use of light pulses to control brain circuitry in animals genetically engineered to be light-responsive – optogenetics. Genes that allow the sun to control light-sensitive primitive organisms like algae, melded with genes that make fluorescent marker proteins, are fused with a deactivated virus that delivers them to specific types of neurons which they become part of – allowing pulses of light to similarly commandeer brain cells.

When a neuron fires depends on the balance of ions flowing across the cell membrane, so being able to experimentally control this cellular machinery is critical for understanding how the brain works. But until now, the optogenetic tools for turning off neurons have been much less powerful than for turning them on – a weak inhibitory pump, moving only one ion per photon of light, versus an efficient excitatory channel.

Stanford bioengineers and their colleagues recently discovered the crystal structure of channelrhodopsin, the protein borrowed from algae to achieve optogenetic control of neurons. To transform this excitatory channel into an effective inhibitory channel, the team systematically introduced mutations into the channel’s gene, gradually reshaping its structure through molecular engineering into one with optimal inhibitory properties. To become an effective inhibitory channel, its central pore needed to be lined with positive instead of negatively charged amino acids to be converted from a cation (positive ion)-conducting into an anion (negative ion) -conduct-ing channel.

It turns out that there are economies of scale afforded by the transformed channel – the more the inhibition, the less light required to achieve the desired biological effect. This raises possible future therapeutic applications, such as in the management of pain, said Deisseroth.

The study was also funded, in part, by the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Researchers transformed an excitatory cellular channel borrowed from algae (above left) into a powerful inhibitory channel (lower right) that allows for precise experimental turning-off of neurons.

Source: Andre Berndt, Ph.D., Soo Yeun Lee, Ph.D., Charu Ramakrishnan, and Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University

References:Crystal structure of the channelrhodopsin light-gated cation channel. Kato HE, Zhang F, Yizhar O, Ramakrishnan C, Nishizawa T, Hirata K, Ito J, Aita Y, Tsukazaki T, Hayashi S, Hegemann P, Maturana AD, Ishitani R, Deisseroth K, Nureki O. Nature. 2012 Jan 22;482(7385):369-74. doi: 10.1038/nature10870 PMID: 22266941Berndt A, Lee SY, Ramakrishnan C, Deisseroth K. Structure-guided transformation of channelrhodopsin into a light-activated chloride channel. Science, April 25, 2014.

Join NaMI and/or Renew your MembershipWhen you become a member of NAMI, you become part of America's largest grassroots

organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals living with serious mental illness. Join online today!

dues structure:$35.00 Regular Membership

$3.00 Open Door Membership (for economic necessity only)

For more information, please call 334-396-4797.

1401 I-85 Parkway, Suite AMontgomery, AL 36106Phone: (334) 396-4797

Fax: (334) 396-4794Email: wlaird@NAMIAlabama.org

www.NAMIAlabama.org

National Alliance on Mental Illness

NIMH Director Honored by BBRFApril 28, 2014 • Science Update

Thomas R. Insel, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), has been selected as a recipient of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation’s (BBRF) Productive Lives Awards. The April 30th presentation came during a Christie’s dinner and private viewing event in New York celebrating BBRF, the nation’s largest private funder of mental health research.

The Productive Lives Awards recognize “remarkable individuals who have devoted their energy and tal-ents within their respective professions to help those living with mental illness realize their potential and live full, productive lives,” according to BBRF.

In addition to Dr. Insel, award recipients include Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Eric Kandel, M.D., Director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science at Columbia University and Judy Collins, the award-winning singer-songwriter who has inspired audiences through her music and commitment to social activism.

For more information, visit www.nimh.org.

MayMental Health Month

May 12-June 26 - ADMH Capitol Showcase Consumer Art Exhibition

May 15-21 - Older Americans’ Mental Health WeekMay 16-18 - Connection Training – Drury Inn, Montgomery

May 19-25 - Schizophrenia Awareness Week

June 27 National Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Day

JulyNational Minority Mental Health Month

July 11-13 - Family Support Group Training - Fairfield Inn, Montgomery

August 21-23 NAMI Alabama Annual Meeting - Drury Inn, Montgomery

SeptemberNational Recovery Month and Suicide Prevention Month

September 3-6 - NAMI Annual Meeting - Washington, D.C.September 7-13 - National Suicide Prevention Week

September 10 - World Suicide Prevention Day September 15-19 - National Wellness Week

OctoberADHD Awareness Month, Substance Abuse Month, and

National Disability Employment Awareness MonthOctober 3-9 Mental Illness Awareness WeekOctober 11 National Bipolar Awareness Day

October 10 National Depression Screening DayOctober 10 Worldwide Mental Health Day

November 9-15Mental Health Wellness Week