On Tuesday, September 29^th, guests joined NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore for our first ever virtual Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony. We celebrated the many ways we continued to reach our community together and unveiled our 2021-2023 Strategic Plan.

We envision a world where all people affected by mental illness live healthy, fulfilling lives supported by a community that cares. With that vision in mind, our Strategic Plan identifies three key focus areas:

• Engage More People,
• Elevate Our Identity and Influence and
• Expand Our Capacity to Serve

To learn more about our mission to educate and support and build our community, read the full 2021-2023 Strategic Plan by clicking the button below.

The Annual Meeting featured a panel discussion exploring the future of mental health care, and ways that NAMI members can advocate for improved services. Our esteemed panelists included: 

• Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, Baltimore City Health Commissioner
• Crista Taylor, President/CEO, Behavioral Health System Baltimore
• Dr. Gregory Branch, Baltimore County Health Officer

We look forward to an impactful year ahead and hope you will consider joining us by volunteering, becoming a partner on a training or anti-stigma initiative, or supporting us with a donation. There is still much work to be done. We are excited to build on this momentum—reaching our potential, together.  

Couldn’t make it on Tuesday? No problem! Click the button below for the full video.

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On Tuesday April 21, more than 300 participants joined Baltimore for the first-ever virtual event, Community Conversations: Navigating Emotional Wellness During Uncertain Times. This event was presented in partnership with  NAMI Metro Baltimore and  Sheppard Pratt.  Experts Dr. Todd Peters and Dr. Brad Piergrossi shared how to take care of yourself and others along with the best means of coping with anxiety, depression, and isolation. You can view the full recorded discussion below.

Lucinda Levine of Inkquiry Visuals illustrated our conversation and turned it into a work of art.

Additional Resources:

Learn more about NAMI Metro Baltimore’s online support group meetings being offered during the COVID-19 emergency.

For more information or referrals to local resources, please contact the NAMI Metro Baltimore HelpLine at (410) 435-2600.

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Sheppard Pratt is here to serve as a mental health resource for you and your family. Learn about telehealth and walk-in options that are now available:

Telehealth and Teletherapy

Sheppard Pratt is now offering telehealth, teletherapy, and medication management services through telehealth. Please contact the outpatient center nearest you to learn more and see if you qualify. Click here to see locations and learn more.

Sheppard Pratt’s Virtual Crisis Walk-In Clinic is now open. Through this program, we offer psychiatric triage and referrals to our other virtual and in-person care options through a secure, online platform. Click here to learn more and make an appointment.

Walk-In Options

Crisis Walk-In Clinic: Our Crisis Walk-In Clinic remains open for immediate psychiatric triage – please exercise this option rather than going to an emergency room when possible. Learn more here.

• Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Saturdays, 1 – 5 p.m.

Outpatient Behavioral Health Centers: Some of our outpatient behavioral health centers are now offering walk-in appointments. Click here to find a location near you.

For those considering in-person care: if you have a fever, coughing, shortness of breath, or have been in close contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, please call your primary care provider. If you feel sick and it is an emergency, please call 911.

To learn more, contact info@sheppardpratt.org.

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For guided meditations from Dr. Brad Piergrossi that you can do from home, visit here.

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Virtual NAMIWalks Maryland Event: Saturday, May 30th

This year, NAMIWalks Maryland is going virtual event. While it may look and feel a bit different this year, at its core NAMIWalks is so much more than one day or one event. It is a way to promote awareness of mental health, to raise critically important funds to support NAMI’s high-quality programs, and to build a closer and stronger community.

Join NAMI supporters from across the country as we come together in a way that is safe and comfortable.

Stay tuned for updates on virtual walk activities leading up to an online celebration on May 30th.

What is a “5K Your Way”?

Participating in a virtual NAMIWalks means just what it sounds like: virtually anything goes. You can walk around your neighborhood, maintaining safe social distancing practices. Have a treadmill at home? That works too! You can get creative with your NAMIWalks.

However you choose to “5K Your Way,” be sure to share with others why mental health is important to you, your family, and the Baltimore community.

Start or Join a Team

Ready to take the first step? Start your team today, or join an existing team with friends, family, or colleagues. Register at namiwalks.org/maryland

Please be sure to designate that you are walking in support of the Metro Baltimore affiliate during registration. This ensures that funds raised by your team will provide free mental health education, support, and advocacy programs right here in Baltimore.

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Date/Time: Wednesday, October 14, 2020, 7:00-8:30pm
Location: Pratt Central Library – Wheeler Auditorium
400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD

The program is presented in partnership with the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don’s work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins–aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony–and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?

What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family’s unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.

Robert Kolker is the New York Times bestselling author of Lost Girls, named one of the New York Times‘s 100 Notable Books and one of Publishers Weekly‘s Top Ten Books of 2013. As a journalist, his work has appeared in New York magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, O magazine,and Men’s Journal. He is a National Magazine Award finalist and a recipient of the 2011 Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Books will be available for purchase at a signing after the program.

Free, no registration required. Seating is first come, first serve.

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Out of an abundance of caution and in an effort to minimize the spread of coronavirus, the organizing partners have postponed the “Of Substance” Stoop Storytelling event scheduled for Tuesday, March 31st. The event will be rescheduled in fall 2020. Please check back for updates and announcements regarding the event.

Real, personal stories about our complicated and contradictory relationships with drugs and alcohol

Hear seven compelling stories from people whose lives were changed by drugs and alcohol – the thrills, the perils, the regrets, and the struggles. Their stories may be funny, sad, or serious…but they’re all true.

This event is free and open to the public. Advanced registration is encouraged to reserve your seat.

This event is presented in partnership by Goucher College, Catholic Charities Baltimore, Behavioral Health System Baltimore, Baltimore magazine, MATOD, MedStar Health, Jewish Community Services, NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore, Baltimore Jewish Council, and the Associated.

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