Mental Health Notes

NAMI Cookout For Mental Health Month

by Alicia Sparks, NAMI Affiliation Leader on May 6th, 2008

As I mentioned yesterday, my NAMI affiliation had a cookout at one of our local city parks in honor of Mental Health Month.

Well, it turned out to be a lovely event! The weather was gorgeous, the food was delicious, and aside from a crowd of skateboarding teenagers (who eventually moved on to skate somewhere else - I guess we were boring, ha!) and restroom facilities that were out of order (a water leak forced the manager to shut everything down - the day before our cookout!), everything went perfectly.

My only gripe is attendance.

We had a fairly decent turn out, but nothing to brag about. I don’t understand what went wrong. I hung fliers, and announced the cookout well in advance on the news (including the news station’s Web site), in the paper, through group emails to our regular meeting attendees, through phone calls, and on our Web site. It’s all very reminiscent of the health fair ordeal.

I know that, throughout the country, there are many folks who prefer other mental health advocacy organizations over NAMI. However, in my neck of the woods, NAMI is “the thing,” so to speak. They are very active, and very well liked with an awesome reputation and great relationships with other health organizations. So, I’m not inclined to say, “It’s because it was NAMI.”

Last summer, when I took on the NAMI Affiliation Leader role, I knew it was going to be a serious effort getting people to not only want to address their mental health issues, but to actually get out of their houses and join others dealing with similar health and life situations; however, I had no idea it was going to be this difficult.

Please don’t misunderstand; I’m not getting discouraged, nor am I overlooking the importance of the people who do participate. I am very grateful for them. Not only are they taking action to learn more about their mental health, but they’re also helping advocate for mental health.

I guess I’d better head back to the drawing board and try to think of new ways to promote and get people interested and involved. Any suggestions are welcome!

Image: morgueFile

Chato B. Stewart is currently rockin’ out in the This Is Why I ROCK! series here at Mental Health Notes. If you have a mental illness and are still living the life you love, head on over the the official announcement post and enter!

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POSTED IN: Current Affairs & News, Have Some Fun, Mental Health Advocacy, No Prescription Needed, Rants & Raves, Self-help, Updates, Volunteer, stigma