Partnerships For Recovery

Posted on May 1, 2003

WHAT:   NAMI’s 24th Annual National Convention
WHEN:   June 28-July 1, 2003
WHERE: Minneapolis Convention Center
WHO:    Approximately 2000 NAMI members—national, state and local leaders, people with mentalillnesses, families, friends, physicians, teachers, public officials,  college  students, journalists and others—including:

• Michael Hogan, Chair of President Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
• Charles Curie, Administrator, U.S. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration
• Thomas Insel, M.D., Director of the National Institute for Mental Health
• Laurent Lehmann, M.D., U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• Minneapolis Police Chief Robert Olson
• The Honorable Pamela Alexander, Hennepin County District Court
• Linda Fuller, co-founder, Habitat for Humanity International
• Best-selling author Bebe Moore Campbell

WHY: should national and local news media cover this convention and all interested persons attend? Because one in four American families are affected by mental illnesses. Because suicide is the third-leading cause of death among youth, ages 15 to 24. Because for too long, people with mental illnesses have been cruelly stereotyped, neglected, abused or abandoned. Because the nation’s mental health system is in crisis and President Bush’s New Freedom Commission is challenging all of us to lead.

Special events:

• Native American Mental Healthcare Symposium

• National premiere of two major documentary films

• Convention banquet including a memorial tribute to the late Senator Paul Wellstone and national media awards that may foreshadow next year’s Pulitzer Prizes

Convention program tracks:

• How Recovery is Changing the Way We Think—holistic approaches and concepts in which recovery from mental illness is not only possible, but probable

• A Place to Call Home: Affordable Housing as a Foundation for Recovery
• Healthy Children: For Our Nation and the Future
• New Allies Against Criminalization: Police and the Court Systems

• Welcoming People with Mental Illnesses into Faith Communities

• Tempest on Golden Pond: The Emerging Crisis in Geriatric Mental Illnesses
• With A Little Help From My Friends: Helping A Population at Risk—the growing challenge in colleges and universities
• Rural Mental Health Care: The Department of Veterans Affairs Approach to Meeting the Needs of Veterans in Rural Communities

Other feature opportunities:

• The latest news in scientific research
• Ask–the-doctor sessions about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, and other topics
• Opportunities to interview people living with mental illnesses, their families and friends about their experiences