The State and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Maryland are collaborating on an online platform to provide information and education on mental health.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. The NAMI organization operates at the national, state and local level.
NAMI Maryland is the NAMI state organization in Maryland. NAMI Maryland provides educational resources and events, statewide outreach, advocacy and affiliate organizational support. NAMI Maryland provides the free trainings that allow NAMI affiliates to deliver NAMI programs.
NAMI Maryland continues to work to populate the site with behavioral health resources, including interactive webinars which then are posted on the site as well as fact sheets, useful links, and prerecorded informational videos. NAMI is asking for volunteers to consider presenting a live webinar on one of the various topics or recommendations for other speakers who would be willing to do so.
The webinars receive hundreds of registrants, are also recorded and posted on the NAMI Maryland website and the Maryland State COVID Connect Platform, and are pushed out through social media.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
1. Handling stress and anxiety
2. Preventing and/or coping with crises
3. “What is the new normal?”
4. Various aspects of self-care (in general and specific practical methods)
5. Substance and other addictive behaviors
6. Having difficult family conversations
7. Handling the stigma of having had the coronavirus
8. Handling practical life and financial issues
9. Helping children cope around COVID
10. Reentry concerns
11. Developing a safety plan
These topics are just suggestions but you may have additional information that could be useful to NAMI.
The webinars are usually presented (and recorded) on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month at 5 pm. NAMI is scheduling for June forward. The platform opens at 4:40 PM for presenters to test their PowerPoint and prepare. The presentation is from 5 – 6 PM usually allowing a few minutes before closure for Q&A. A prerecorded webinar or shorter video can be done at the convenience of the presenter and whomever is doing the recording (NAMIMD, your agency, yourself, or the Maryland BHA.) NAMI also works with the speaker to develop and disseminate a short infographic from the webinar.
At this time, the open dates for speakers are: June 2, June 16, July 7, July 21, August 8, August 18, September 1, September 15, September 29, October 6, October 20, and November 1.
If you are interested or have speaker recommendations, please contact NAMI Maryland’s Executive Director, Kate Farinholt at ed@namimd.org.
