NAMI: Empowering People Living With Mental Illness, feat. Katherine Murphy of NAMI PBC | EDB 322
Katherine Murphy, CEO of NAMI Palm Beach County, share how the alliance is helping people with mental health challenges in South Florida and throughout the nation.
NAMI Palm Beach County is an affiliate of NAMI – THE national Alliance on Mental Illness. From their website: “NAMI PBC is an organization dedicated to providing support, education and advocacy with the goal to empower persons with mental illness and their families. Support groups, information on community resources, advocacy, educational programs (such as Peer-to-Peer and Family-to-Family) and one-on-one peer mentoring are just some of the many services provided by NAMI PBC to Palm Beach County residents. As a nonprofit organization that relies on the generous donations of our members and others, our fundraising events, and that receives grant funds to support programs, all services and programs offered by NAMI PBC are free to those who use them…
“…NAMI PBC strives to be the recognized leading organization for improving the quality of life and protecting the rights and interests of those affected by mental illness in Palm Beach County. Elimination of the stigma attached to mental illness is essential to achieve the goals of empowerment, social inclusion and recovery.”
For more about NAMI PBC: https://namipbc.org/
Or for information about the national website: https://nami.org/
AUDIO PODCAST VERSION:
Or look for us on your favorite podcast provider:
iTunes | Stitcher | SoundCloud
FULL TRANSCRIPTION
Note: the following transcription was automatically generated. Some imperfections may exist.
HACKIE REITMAN, M.D. (HR):
Hi, I’m Dr. Hackie Reitman, welcome to another episode of Exploring Different Brains. And today, we’re fortunate to have with us, Katherine Murphy, who is the CEO of NAMI of Palm Beach County. Welcome, Katherine.
KATHERINE MURPHY (KM):
Thanks so much. It’s great to be here.
HR:
Tell our audience all about nami.
KM:
Great, I’d love to. Can I include a little history?
HR:
Absolutely.
KM:
So NAMI was started in 1979. At that point, there were a lot of support groups throughout the country, families who were coming together to talk about serious mental illness. And there wasn’t a lot of cohesion. And so that year, in 1979, there was a meeting of all of these various core group leaders from throughout the country. And they said, Hey, let’s get organized. And they created a national organization. And over time, the name has evolved of what nominee looks like, has evolved. But at that same time here in Palm Beach County, where I am, and 1983 families came together, and they also had a support group and decided to join that national movement. So our local affiliate has been here for 41 years now, and stemmed out of that initial meeting of those families from throughout the country coming together.
HR:
And so you recognize that mental illness needed an organization, that mental illness is right up there on the things we need to pay attention to in our society.
KM:
Absolutely. And in those days, there wasn’t a lot of organization. There was advocacy around disability rights in general, but the families of people, especially young men who had schizophrenia, they felt like they didn’t have a lot of different groups, a lot of places to go to the understood their needs. They didn’t feel fully incorporate it into the care by their medical professionals and really incorporate it in the community. And so they found refuge in sharing similar stories. And from that we became a national organization today there are over 600 NAMIs throughout the country and Florida we have 24 NAMI affiliates, and every state has a nominee state office.
HR:
That’s great. How do you think that South Florida is doing in general with mental illness?
KM:
Well, I mean, even in South Florida, it’s it’s really different between Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County, here in Palm Beach County, we try to work collaboratively, but there is definitely a lot of work to be done. Saying that we often hear is, you know, how can we fix a system when there is no system for mental health. And so if somebody were to try to navigate a mental health system, they would have a lot of difficulty finding their way from one provider to another. We strive to have wraparound type services, but often it’s very disjointed. You know, especially if somebody’s in crisis, how they might go between different providers have the information shared, have it covered. So people can find it very costly, difficult to make appointments, difficult to find a provider that they really connect with. So it’s not an easy system to navigate here in Palm Beach County.
HR:
Can you talk a bit about the stigma, and the common ways it materializes? And what NAMI of Palm Beach County is doing to reduce the stigma of mental illness?
KM:
Thanks for that question. One major thing that NAMI tries to do to reduce the stigma around mental illness is to talk about our personal stories. One in five people will experience a mental health condition every year. And that means a lot of people are having these experiences. And what we try to do is normalize that and personalize it. We have a couple of storytelling programs. One is called in our own voice, where people will come and talk about their journey. We talk about their diagnosis, talk about what helps them to live productive, successful lives. And so we’re always trying to share stories of hope. Stigma can show up in different ways, it might show up as societal discrimination. According to employment, it might show up in movies, especially around Halloween, if you go to a haunted house, it’s very common to find the insane asylum section of a haunted house. In our own families, people might be prevented from receiving care because a family member might have stigma around mental health conditions. And then within ourselves, we might have self stigma, where we don’t want to be identified with or labeled as having a mental health condition. One thing that I hear from youth is that their older family members don’t understand mental health conditions, they might not feel comfortable with their child, or their youth to get support for their mental health symptoms.
HR:
And that’s especially important because we find here at different brains, as I’m sure you do. Self Advocacy is a great, great, great tool.
KM:
Absolutely. Yeah. And then that that public, just acknowledgement of the prevalence, that mental health conditions are part of our brains and our biology, and to try to reduce the judgment around that.
HR:
So let’s say I’m having trouble with mental health issues. Where do I begin?
KM:
Well, one great thing that we have throughout the country is a national line, it’s 988. So anybody anywhere can call 988 24/7. And get support immediately a care a caring ear, a referral to different resources in the community, you can also text now. So a lot of people, they might not feel so comfortable to talk on the phone, maybe they’re not in a private environment, they can text the line now. And then you can contact your local Nami as well. And we help individuals to find local providers.
HR:
And what is that number that our audience should remember?
KM:
988
HR:
Just three digits,
KM:
Three digits.
HR:
Tell us about the upcoming presentations that NAMI is doing for autism acceptance month.
KM:
We’re so excited. This is our second year of doing our lecture series, and April. So on April 15, we’re going to have Cheryl Checkers present on diagnostic considerations, autism and mental health. And on April 26, we’re going to have Dr. Christopher K. Speak about a translational neuroscience approach to the diagnosis and treatment of co-occurring mental health conditions, and autism. It’s quite a mouthful, one of those talks will be virtual, so anybody can join us from anywhere in the country. And then the other one will be a lunch and learn in person. So different opportunities, depending on if somebody feels comfortable coming in.
HR:
So we’ll come about reach these do you do at NAMI to other organizations that specific communities or just specific communities. Let’s, for example, say the LGBTQ plus community.
KM:
Sure. And so within our staff, we tried to be culturally competent to work with various communities, we do a lot of social posts that try to include various identities. And we recently launched an LGBTQ plus support group in collaboration with Compass community center. So we offer that group twice a month.
HR:
That’s great. So you’re you’re teaming up with other existing organizations, for the greater good.
KM:
Teamwork makes the dream work, right. And so we, we really love working with trusted partners, so that we can be in a safe a space that feels comfortable and safe to individuals who might already be receiving services there, and then they can come in and meet with our staff and volunteers.
HR:
How is NAMI doing at the policy end of the spectrum?
KM:
Sure. So NAMI has three pillars education, advocacy, and support. So with advocacy, we support people on their mental health journeys, but we also try to advocate to our local, state and national leaders. Nami has great information around our policy initiatives. And then we collaborate with the Florida Mental Health Advocacy Coalition, which is a group of nominees mental health America’s and different people and organizations from throughout the state who want to be involved in that advocacy work. We go to Tallahassee almost every year, we go to DC when we can, and we encourage funding and, and laws which support people with mental health conditions and their families. So that’s one piece about nominees work is we are very invested in the family That’s great.
HR:
And where can people learn more about NAMI?
KM:
For our local affiliate, the website is namipbc.org. So that’s NAMI Palm Beach County. But you can just go to nami.org on the national site. And there’s so much great information there, you can learn about mental health conditions, treatment options, different journeys. You know, depending on what’s going on in your life, you can also find all of our policy information stacks and statistics, many local presenters are nationally, they’ll go to the NAMI site to get really quality, accurate information to be able to share. And so nami.org is an incredible place to start. And from there, you can also find your local Nami. One neat thing about nominees is we have this great menu of programs that we can offer. And so if you’re taking a program in California or New York or Broward County, those programs will be led with fidelity. And so you should be able to get the same material wherever you are. So in a lot of nominees have virtual programming. And so it’s a pretty easy access point. There’s wherever somebody is, there’s probably a local NAMI.
HR:
Well, you’re NAMI of Palm Beach County has certainly been a national leader, which is one of the reasons we’re speaking with you today, and helping set the trend lines across the nation. And it’s so good that you have the healthy interplay with the national organization, as well as Palm Beach County, as well as here in South Florida with, you know, Broward and Palm Beach, county and Dade counties.
KM:
And to add on to that, I’m sorry, but in addition to those national programs, each affiliate can also create an offer local programming. And so what you find in Miami Dade, Broward Palm Beach County, we might have some new and exciting and different programs that are unique to us.
HR:
And what do you wish society understood about mental illness?
KM:
Well, one of our lines is you’re not alone. One in five people will experience a mental health condition every year. And so these are very common occurrences. And we just want for people to know that there’s somebody out there who can relate to them. All of our stories are unique and different. But we have more in common than that. And so we hope that everyone can know that their local Nami is there for them to offer support and understanding.
HR:
Could you speak for the benefit of our general audience of some of the individual types of mental illnesses that fall under your umbrella? Which I don’t expect it to be the whole encyclopedic because you help everybody? But what are some of your top players and incidences?
KM:
Right, so generally, all of our classes and support groups and presentations are open to all conditions. And that might be ADHD, anxiety, depression, and might be borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia. And we have, the main way that we segregate the groups in the classes is by whether you’re there to talk about your own condition, or if you’re there to talk about somebody that you care about. So we have the family programming, or the pure programming, all of our groups and classes are led by people with lived experience. So they either have a mental health condition or their loved one of somebody who does. So that’s really our specialty. And we do have one program, which is diagnosis specific, which is our borderline personality disorder, family caregiver group. So that’s a group specifically for the people who care about somebody who has BPD.
HR:
Talk a bit, again, about the overlap between neurodiversity, for instance, you mentioned ADHD, and mental health issues.
KM:
What we found, especially in our one on one mentoring program is so many of the individuals who entered our programming, or various mental health conditions, we’re also on the autism spectrum. And we quickly learned that we need it to be able to work with people who were neurodiverse there is a lot of co-occurrence between autism and other mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, among others. I know you’ll have our work President Cheryl Checkers on soon and she’ll be talking about some of those, those clinical aspects of that and I do hope that your audience can join us for those talks in April or we’ll get more into that. I myself am not a clinician, but we do find a lot of people coming for our services who are on the autism spectrum.
HR:
Katherine, how did you get involved in all of this?
KM:
Sure. So within my own Family, we have experiences of mental health conditions, substance use disorders that really impacted my life as a young person. And then as I worked through various nonprofits, and programming, mostly, I really relate it to a lot of what we were sharing a lot of the stigma and shame that families face, it was really important to me, that we help people to feel comfortable and like they are not alone. And that there are other people out there who understand them. And even if you can’t go and talk about what you’re going through at work, or with your friends, or maybe even other family members, you can come to NAMI, and you can talk about these things. And it’s okay. And so I’ve been at NAMI for eight years now. And it’s just such an incredible organization, because the people who are drawn to NAMI are people who really want to connect with others and care and support about these topics.
HR:
So I come to you and say, I have a family member, who’s very, very depressed, doesn’t want to see anybody to do anything about it. How can you help me?
KM:
Well, we can start by sharing in that feeling, you know, what is that like to feel potentially helpless or hopeless, and many people come to us, and they’re at the end of their rope. And what we do is find that common theme help to understand what does that feel like, but then also build up the tool set, we have a lot of books that we recommend, we have a class, it’s called NAMI family to family. It’s eight sessions. And it’s taught by and for those family caregivers, and they learned communication techniques. They learned strategies for engaging their loved ones, Strategies for Engaging the providers that they might see. They learn about their own self care, and preventing burnout, and just a whole host of great techniques to help to enforce them and strengthen them, and to try to help them to feel like they can continue to support their loved one and to learn what options are available for their family.
HR:
And it’s so good that you’re both national and local, because you cover all the bases. Are there books available?
KM:
Well, NAMI recently released a book called You Are Not Alone by our medical director, Dr. Ken Duckworth. So that’s a great place to start. There are a lot of incredible stories, different types of treatment options. It’s a really lovely book, it’s on many of the libraries, you can get it online. So I’d start there. Another book that we recommend to many of our family members is called, I am not sick, I don’t need help by Dr. Xavier Amador. And that uses the LEAP method, which is a technique that we often suggest for families to learn how to partner with their loved one who may not understand the intensity of their condition. And so many families, they they don’t know what to do if the person they care about doesn’t want treatment doesn’t want to engage and can’t recognize that they have a condition. And so we try to really cover that spectrum from, you know, serving people who aren’t aware of their condition to people who are ready to take an advocacy role in their wellness.
HR:
For those who may not be in Palm Beach County and close by and other parts of South Florida. What are some of the other NAMI locations?
KM:
Throughout the state there are 24 NAMIs. There’s one in Broward County, Miami Dade County, Monroe County, Sarasota Manatee counties and our southern Florida area, there’s a state office. And what you can do is just Google find your local Nami. And it will show you a map. And you can find the various nominees. If you are interested in a specific type of program we have to offer like our peer support group or a family support group, you can click for that. And then you can find which nominees throughout the state offer that program so you could look her program or you could look her your area. So many of the nominees offer virtual programming so you can engage from where you are with another affiliate, if maybe that schedule works better for you. Let’s say you work on Saturday night, you can’t attend our support group, you might be able to find another NAMI that offers us you know, a support group that fits a time that’s good for you. But it’s really great to check out whatever Nami is in your area because they might have niq and exciting programs, different scheduling various languages, various specific types of support groups here in Palm Beach County, we offer support for young adults ages 18 to 35. Not every NAMI has that group. They might have different specific groups that they’d create it depending on the needs of their local population. So I do recommend check out your local NAMI, check out national and you really can engage with various nominees throughout the country.
HR:
Tell us about some of your upcoming programs and events.
KM:
So Earlier you asked me about stigma. And one way that we reduce stigma Nomicon Beach County is through our annual Walk, NAMI walks Palm Beach County, there’s also walking in other affiliates throughout the country. But the one of the core purposes of the walk is to reduce stigma, and to come out during the day and hundreds, and to talk about mental health and to walk in support of it. And it’s just so heartfelt and heartwarming for people to come out and see how many people come and support mental health. So that’s one of our great events, we offer that every November. We also have a luncheon every December with the speaker. As I mentioned, we have the talks on autism spectrum disorder and April are National Autism Awareness Month, we have lectures every month, we have our storytelling series “NAMI: In Our Own Voice”, we offer that online, so individuals who want to come and learn more about mental health, and hear personal stories can join us or in our own voice sessions. And there’s just a ton of learning opportunities. So if you check out our website namipbc.org, you can see all the different things that we have coming up. Every Friday, we offer yoga online, it’s a free trauma informed yoga and mindfulness class, anybody can join, everything that we do is free of cost. So you just go on our website, sign up, and you can join us online every week for free yoga class.
HR:
Katherine, how did NAMI Palm Beach County navigate the recent COVID pandemic?
KM:
Prior to the pandemic, we did very little virtual programming. We did our mentoring online or their phone through video communication. But we were a bit slow to get into the virtual space beyond that program. And so with the pandemic, we had to pivot as everybody else did, we’re so grateful for video programming, we initially we have a drop in center. And that was the hardest part was going to virtual programming for our drop in center. So many of the people who we serve, they really enjoy and appreciate that face to face quality of the programming. So it was really difficult to close down our in person services. But we tried to transform that. And that’s when we began to offer our wellness series and did a weekly yoga class. And we were doing a weekly art class for the first two years of the pandemic. And that was a way for us to be able to still stay in touch with the people that we serve, we transitioned to all of our support groups online. One good thing that came out of that is we were offering five family support groups throughout the county and all different locations, and they would be held once a month. So if you lived in Boca Raton, you would have a once a month opportunity to go to a support group in person. How we changed is we began to offer that support group every week online. And so people from throughout the whole county can come together, we’ve continued that group today. And so every Wednesday night, the family members come together and support each other. And many people, as you know, are snowbirds or maybe they come to this area for treatment from other states. And so if let’s say mom is living in New York, but her adult son came to Delray Beach to receive treatment, she can zoom into our support group, and so she can learn about the local resources for her son who lives here. So that’s been a really great bonus of going virtual. But, you know, we really did have to make that change, like everyone else did. And now it’s been a transition to back in person. Our pure Council is made up of individuals who are living with mental health conditions who want to take an advocacy role. And they really could not wait to get back to in person programming. So that was one of our first programs to go back to in person. And what they do is every month they have a business meeting and a pizza party, and they plot out their year and what activities they want to do. And at least once a month, they do a field trip and the community. So that’s been a really important reengagement with the pier Council. The trips have 20 to 40 people attending them, and they go to art museums, the theater, play mini golf, go bowling, just a lot of really fun recreational activities. And that is those activities are created by and for the pure Council, they have a lot of autonomy, and their president actually sits on our board of directors. So all of that to say that was one of our most important groups to get back in person. And that’s been going strong now. And we love our in person programming and are trying to do a combination of it so that people can join around throughout the county and potentially beyond if they would like to, but then to have those face to face experiences where people can really build that true sense of community.
HR:
That’s great. That’s great. You guys do wonderful, wonderful work. And we want to thank you for spending this time with us. And I’m sure that some of our audience is going to be in touch with you. We’ve been speaking with Katherine Murphy, the CEO of NAMI of Palm Beach County, and you’ve heard about all of the wonderful programs you’re invited to attend. All of the programming of NAMI, Palm Beach County is free. And there’s lots of good materials online. And Katherine Murphy, we want to thank you so much for being here. And we hope to see you again real soon. Keep up your great work. Thank you.
KM:
Thank you so much, doctor. Thank you to Different Brains We really appreciate having this opportunity to speak to your community and we hope that people can feel comfortable to come to NAMI and learn more about what we can offer.
