Each year, NAMI Maryland hosts an Advocacy Day during the legislative session. This is your chance to join us virtually to meet with your legislators and share your story!
Join us at 8:00 am on Thursday, February 18th 2021 for a briefing before attending group meetings with your legislators. NAMI Maryland will be working with your local affiliate to make these appointments with important committees, and we want to ensure everyone's voice can be heard! Due to the nature of these meetings, space may be limited.
Then, everyone can reconvene with us at 10:00 am to share feedback and hear from Maryland Leaders about their work and how they plan to make mental health a priority for 2021. Additional legislator meetings will be scheduled between 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm.
We strongly urge you to attend the training webinar - the structure of the day is different from what we normally do and we want to make sure NAMI advocates are prepared!
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 The 2021 Legislative Session Starts Today!
The Maryland Legislative Session starts today! Stay up-to-date on the latest at the Maryland General Assembly through their legislative website.
Learn More
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Treating Depression: Myth vs. Reality
Tuesday, January 19th, 2021 at 12:00 PM | Presented by Rev. Pamula Yerby-Hammack & Dr. Dan Hale
Depression is a serious, potentially life-threatening condition that affects more than 17 million U.S. adults annually. There are many effective treatments for depression, but misconceptions about types of treatment and how to access them can cause dangerous delays in care.
During this webinar you will hear from both a psychiatrist, Dr. Alexis Hammond, and a psychologist who has struggled with depression himself, Dr. W. Daniel Hale, as they discuss effective treatment and dispel many of the myths surrounding the diagnosis. Register now.
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Bridging the Gap: Effective First Responder & Mental Health Care Partnerships
Monday, February 8, 2021 at 12:00 PM | Presented by Lt. Steven Thomas & Steve Plummer, LCPC
The lack of mental health crisis services across the U.S. has resulted in a need for first responders to serve in mental health situations. It is important for first responders to form effective strategies and partnerships with local mental health services.
This presentation will explore the intersection of first responders with mental health care and teach how to develop effective strategies to build strong partnerships to ensure access to quality treatment and increase awareness around the needs of mental health care for first responder professionals.
Register now.
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Resiliency & Mental Wellness for First Responders
Originally Recorded 1/11/21 | Presented by Lt. Steven Thomas & Michelle Warshauer
Public health and public safety workers experience a broad range of health and mental health consequences as a result of work-related exposures to natural or human-caused disasters. Combined with long hours of work, frequent shifts, poor sleep, physical hardships, and other negative experiences, there has been an increase in cases of high stress and trauma.
Resiliency & Mental Wellness will discuss first responder's high exposure to stress and trauma and how these events impact them personally and professionally. In addition, this workshop will explore Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) and how it can help mitigate first responder's crisis reaction and assist in their resiliency going forward.
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Walk Your Way with us in 2021!
The 2021 NAMIWalks Your Way Maryland website is now open!
In 2021, we are celebrating 19 years of NAMIWalks, the nation's largest and most successful mental health awareness and fundraising campaign. NAMI Maryland is proud to have been involved in NAMIWalks since the very beginning, and we hope you will join us this year for this incredible virtual campaign!
NAMIWalks Your Way Maryland will culminate in a virtual showcase on Saturday, May 22nd, 2021.
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Building Inclusion: An Exploration of
Anti-Semitism
In the first Virtual Town Hall of 2021, NAMI is proud to host the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding to continue our exploration of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our work and communities. Tanenbaum CEO Rev. Mark Fowler and Senior Workplace Program Associate Leslie Funk will delve into the topic of anti-Semitism to further educate, increase our awareness, and consider the relevance of this centuries-old discrimination against the Jewish people in our work and our mental health communities.
- Takeaways include increased awareness about the historical context
- Selected demographic information and interactive components
- Increased understanding of the impact of anti-Semitism in the world we live in and the work we do.
Strategies to build stronger ties within your local Jewish community.
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Missing Matters: Suicide Loss in our African American and Black Communities
Saturday, February 6, 2021 | 2:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Mission: To open up a conversation among African Americans and other Black communities for loss and healing after a suicide.
Allies are welcome to attend, listen and participate
Purpose: To hold a space for African American and Black loss survivors to learn, share and heal with each other. National loss initiatives tend to have few participants from these communities. Existing resources are generally led by the dominant white culture and address its issues, leaving other cultures without a voice. We feel strongly that we need a space for African Americans and other Black communities to process their losses to suicide in a safe space made by and for them. This conference will be the first in a series; we plan to use this template to offer space for other ethnicities and cultures to form their own loss and healing conferences.
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To kick-off the new year, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) will host a livestream event on managing stress and anxiety on Thursday, January 14, 2021, from 1:00 - 1:30 p.m. ET. During this event, Krystal Lewis, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist at NIMH, will discuss coping techniques on how to maintain your mental health during the pandemic and when to get professional help.
Watch the livestream event on NIMH's Facebook or Twitter feeds. You must have either a Facebook or Twitter account to watch.
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We Need Health Equity Resource Communities!
We support creating and funding Health Equity Resource Communities in Maryland. Health inequities based on race, ethnicity, disability, and place of residence persist throughout the state and have been further exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, we are proud to join Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative and a coalition of over 250 organizations across the state advocating for the creation of these communities which are to be funded by a proposed one penny per dollar alcohol sales tax increase. I encourage you and those in your networks to join with us in the Health Equity Resource Communities Coalition by signing up at healthcareforall.com/equityresolution
Please contact Stephanie Klapper at [email protected] if you have any questions about this effort.
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 Psychosocial Interventions Are Found to Reduce Inflammation and Boost Beneficial Immune System Function
An analysis of 56 randomized clinical trials concluded that psychosocial interventions can significantly reduce inflammation and enhance beneficial immune system function-a possible benefit in treating depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, other illnesses. Learn more.
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NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore & NAMI Montgomery County Smarts for Advocacy Classes!
Dates: Tuesdays, 2/2/2021 - 2/16/2021 | 6:00pm
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 leading up to a virtual Advocacy Day on February 18th!
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Attention Mental Health Professionals!
Are you a licensed, practicing mental health professional and a member of your corresponding professional association? We need your help on a research study! We are asking you to participate in a one-time, 90 minute virtual focus group meeting with 2 or three colleagues to help advance the science of nascent mental health. If you're interested, contact Sebastiana at [email protected] or contact 301-520-9286
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Did you know? NAMI Maryland is now accepting donations of stock, bonds, and mutual funds! Not only can these be a tax-efficient way to support the work we do at NAMI Maryland, but gifts of stock can even provide a greater tax benefit t you than gifts of cash.
These gifts can save you taxes in two ways: you receive a charitable deduction and you avoid the capital gains tax on the gift! If your securities have depreciated, you can sell them and give the proceeds to NAMI Maryland. This may allow you to claim the loss when you fill your taxes in April and take the charitable deduction of the amount of your gift.
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