NAMI Metro Baltimore’s annual conference for faith community leaders is a 4-part webinar series to help educate and support faith leaders as they support individuals impacted by mental illness. Participants will learn new strategies and gain tools to help support the mental well-being of their congregations.
Stay tuned for descriptions on each of the webinars! You can pre-register to reserve your spot using the button below.
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Our free NAMI Mental Health Education courses begin the second week of May! Learn more about each course below, and click the green button beneath the class of your interest to register.
Open to any adult over the age of 18 living with a mental illness or looking to learn tools to support their mental health.
Location: Online via Zoom
Dates: Sundays, May 16th – Sunday, June 27th from 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
NAMI Peer-to-Peer is a free, 8-session education program for adults who are looking to better understand their mental health condition and journey toward recovery. Taught by a trained team of people who’ve been there, the program includes presentations, discussion and interactive exercises.
NAMI Peer-to-Peer will help you:
NAMI Peer-to-Peer is offered virtually. Space is limited and advanced registration is required.
To register, click here or contact our HelpLine at (410) 435-2600 or email info@namibaltimore.org.
Location: Online via Zoom
Dates: Saturdays, May 15th – July 3rd, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
NAMI Family-to-Family is a free, 8-session educational program for family, significant others and friends of people living with mental illness. It is a designated evidence-based program that includes presentations, discussion and interactive exercises. Research shows that the program significantly improves the coping and problem-solving abilities of the people closest to an individual living with a mental health condition.
NAMI Family-to-Family provides critical information and strategies for taking care of the person you love.
In the program, you’ll learn about:
NAMI Family-to-Family is offered virtually. Space is limited and advanced registration is required
To register for the class, click here or please contact our HelpLine at (410) 435-2600 or email info@namibaltimore.org.
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For over 35 years, NAMI Metro Baltimore has worked with dedicated grassroots leaders to raise awareness and provide essential education, advocacy, and support group programs for people living with mental health conditions and their families.
Join NAMI Metro Baltimore leaders for a conversation about mental health, our programs and services, and ways to get involved with our organization. NAMI Metro Baltimore is driven by our dedicated core of volunteers, and small team of 6 who are passionate about bringing awareness and support to the community in Baltimore impacted by mental illness.
Come get to know us! To receive Zoom meeting access details, click the button below and register for the event.
Our next Get to Know NAMI Metro is April 13th, from 4pm – 5pm.
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You bring your brains and we’ll take care of the rest! Join us for a night of trivia to benefit NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore—the voice for mental health in our community.
Don’t miss this! We’re getting together via Zoom on April 3rd at 7:45 PM. We hope you’ll consider joining us and making the most generous donation that your circumstances allow.
To get a ticket, please click the button below! You’ll receive an invitation with a Zoom link from Julie Funk within 24-hours.
Minimum donation to receive a ticket: $100, $50 for students.
About NAMI:
NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore is the trusted resource for mental health in Baltimore City and County—where 20% of our community members live with a mental health condition. In this tumultuous year, mental health is more important than ever before. According to the CDC, one in three people say the pandemic has left them feeling anxious or depressed, with a sharp increase in suicidal ideation. Twenty-four percent of people ages 18-24 have considered suicide. Alarming new research shows that one fifth of COVID-19 patients receive a psychiatric diagnosis within 90 days. The work of NAMI Metro Baltimore is critical as this pandemic continues.
About Walsh Trivia:
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Written by Kerry Graves, Executive Director of NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore serving Baltimore City and Baltimore County
It’s no secret that the events of the last year have set the stage for an unprecedented national mental health crisis. On top of life’s normal stressors, we’ve been dealing with a global pandemic, unrest over racial injustice, political divisiveness, and now the thread of seasonal depression and increased social isolation during the wintertime.
Needless to say, there is an urgency to not only talk about mental health in the workplace, but to create a culture centered around mental health awareness and prevention. Organizations and their leaders must understand that mental health education, advocacy, and support are “must-have” standards for employees, not “nice-to-have” benefits.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that nearly one-in-five American adults live with a mental illness. One study shoes that nearly 41% of American adults who didn’t struggle with mental health issues are now experiencing them as a result of COVID-19. The results are leading to dangerous and costly patterns from a workplace standpoint.
According to the World Health Organization, the loss of productivity due to poor mental health can be as high as $1 trillion per year, and again, that’s without taking the pandemic into account. A recent survey found that 70% of employees have admitted to experiencing burnout since the pandemic because the boundaries between work and home are more blurred than ever. In turn, productivity, motivation, and work quality are all suffering.
Furthermore, one-in-four senior-level women are highly considering leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers due to stress overload since the start of the pandemic, according to McKinsey’s most recent annual Women in the Workplace study. This means we are at risk of losing women in leadership, as well as future women leaders, which could undo decades of progress towards achieving workplace gender diversity.
But just as poor mental health leads to negative workplace effects, positive mental health can translate into benefits and successes. Improving employees’ mental health can facilitate a more efficient workflow, relationships, productivity, company loyalty and employee recruitment. It’s also a smart financial move. What better time than now to create that kind of environment?
Here are some actions employers can take to improve mental health awareness.
*This column originally ran in the Help Desk section of the Baltimore Business Journal on February 11, 2021. Click here to view the original article.
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Interested in learning how you can be part of the movement to create policies that help people impacted by mental illness? Join our upcoming virtual SMARTS for Advocacy Classes.
Dates and Modules:
Tuesday, February 2nd – Telling Your Story
Tuesday, February 9th – Contacting Your Policy Maker
Tuesday, February 16th – Meeting Your Policy Maker
*Space is limited. Please be sure to register in advance!
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Are you interested in learning about memory loss and healthy aging? Do you currently care for someone at risk for or currently living with dementia? Then this informative mental health forum is for you!
Ashley Scott, MHA from Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center will provide information about memory loss and dementia, risk factors, and preventative measures one can take to lower their risk of dementia. After her presentation, there will be breakout sessions for attendees to connect with one another and discuss their thoughts around the topic.
Come with your questions! There will be time for Q&A after the presentation.
*If you wish to call in, or know someone who does not have access to Zoom but would find this presentation helpful, please call our HelpLine (410) 435-2600 for call-in details.
*Space is limited. Please register in advance!
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Our friends at The Van Dyke Family Foundation are matching your online donations to NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore! They’ll match donations up to $10,000 from now until the end of the year.
Wondering why you should donate? NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore provides free mental health support to the 1 in 5 individuals in Baltimore living with a mental health condition, and their families. Below are some numbers about the our impact, and you can learn even more about the work we do by checking out our Annual Report.
188: individuals enrolled in our education classes for families, peers and parents.
134: support group meetings were held in-person and online for peers and family members.
435: individuals reached through workplace presentations provided to local employers.
Your donation will help us reach even more individuals, and keep providing free mental health programs to our community here in Baltimore.
Thank you for supporting mental health!
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There is often little opportunity to ask a psychiatrist a wide range of questions. Time with the doctor in an office visit is often limited and restricted to the most immediate pressing issues. This open Q&A will allow you to ask questions to a psychiatrist: diagnostic concepts, current treatment and alternatives, navigating the mental health system, and meeting longer term rehabilitation goals.
Dr. Mark Komrad, previously the host of a nationwide radio talk show about psychiatry, will join us in a virtual, open mic format. Come with your questions!
Dr. Komrad is a recipient of the National Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from NAMI. He is a psychiatrist on the clinical and teaching staff of Sheppard Pratt Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland, and is on the teaching faculty of Oceania University of Medicine in Samoa.
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NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore is proud to release our 2020 Annual Report. This year has been anything but ordinary—it’s been difficult, stressful and unprecedented. It’s been a strain on the mental health of so many of us. It would have been so easy to explain away a less than stellar year for NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore. But, here’s the thing: 2020 was a great year for us and our community members.
Truly! A lot of wonderful things happened in our community—we provided more than 8,500 service touch-points to community members affected by mental health conditions. Here’s just a few great things:
Want even more good stuff? You’ve got it! Check out the entire Annual Report below.
And there’s more—no matter what the future has in store, we’ll be there. We’ll keep growing our virtual support, adapting quickly and expanding our programming—just like we’ve done since March—because in the midst of all of this we’ve increased our work, reached more people and seen more success. We’ve done it for you, for your family, for your friends, for your community—and NAMI Metro Baltimore will be there every step of the way providing essential education, advocacy and support. That’s our promise to you.
Can we ask for a favor, in return? Consider making a donation to our annual campaign. We rely on donations from individuals like you to continue to support the 20% of our community living with a mental health condition. Every bit helps, and we appreciate you making the most generous donation that your circumstances allow.
With your help, there isn’t anything that can stop us from reaching our potential. We’ll do it together.
With thanks and best wishes,
Your NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore Crew
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