2014 ANNUAL REPORT Respect, Compassion and Hope . . .

NAMI Works!

Manuel Kushner, President

National Alliance on Mental Illness of Palm Beach County Mollie Wilmot Center —Palm Healthcare Pavilion

5205 Greenwood Avenue, Suite 110 West Palm Beach, FL 33407

(561) 588-3477 phone — (561) 588-3499 fax info@namipbc.org — www.namipbc.org

National Alliance on Mental Illness Of Palm Beach County

Manuel Kushner President, Board of Directors

Elizabeth Downey Executive Director

Dear Friends,

2014 was a banner year for the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Palm Beach County.

Palm Healthcare Foundation recognized our efforts and tremendous growth in 2013 by gener-

ously granting us a 5-year lease of a 3,500 square-foot, office space in their Mollie Wilmot Pavil-

ion on the St. Mary’s Hospital campus in West Palm Beach, free of charge. Palm Healthcare

Foundation’s gift enabled us to expand our staff to meet with clients in a confidential manner,

while continuing to utilize the Lake Worth office for support groups, trainings, and Peer Council

meetings.

Our additional staff included: a Clinical Director, Cheryl Checkers, who initiated two new pro-

grams to assist adolescents and adults living with severe and persistent mental illness; Peter

Davey, Lead Peer Specialist and Young Adults Group Facilitator and Stephanie Arnold, Peer Spe-

cialist, both of whom provide mentoring for the REACH for Teens Program; Valerie Storer, Pro-

gram Analyst and NAMI Connection Facilitator; and, Kelsey Joyce, Development Coordinator.

Ms. Joyce along with our NAMIWalks Chair, Carol Passeser, accomplished NAMI Palm Beach

County’s tremendously successful first local Walk with over 600 participants. Another first for

NAMI was the initiation of four adolescent support groups, peer-led and facilitated by licensed

mental health professionals who graciously volunteer their time once a week for these groups.

In October 2014, NAMI Palm Beach County was able to obtain a large grant from the Palm

Beach County Financially Assisted Agencies to fund the REACH for Teens, adolescent support

groups and outreach through the newly created Children’s Behavioral Health Collaborative

(CBHC). (More on this collaborative on page 4.)

During 2014 NAMI Palm Beach County’s Public Affairs Committee worked hard with the Gold-

en Center to advocate for funding of the new co-occurring residential unit at Jerome Golden Be-

havioral Health Center in West Palm Beach, resulting in $200K state funding for that program.

Throughout the year, NAMI Palm Beach County continued to groom our relationships with

local legislators and provider agencies. We want to express our sincere appreciation to

Sen. Joseph Abruzzo and Rep. Bobby Powell for referring family members in need to our

organization.

More is needed and we look forward to meeting that need in 2015!

Elizabeth Downey, Executive Director

Board of Directors

Manuel Kushner President Sean Davis Vice President Tom Espeland Treasurer Marsha Martino Secretary Cristina Andreoli

Past President

Dr. McLean Bolton

Michael Garden

Dr. Christopher Kye

Dr. Jeffrey Lefton

Thomas Mahle

Carol Passeser

Advisory Council

Dr. Ronald L. Davis

Margaret Donnelley

Dr. Jerome Goodman

Edward Griffin

Dorothy Kelleher

Ellie Siklossy

Amanda St. John

Rebecca Taylor Cohen

Eileen Trainor

NAMI of Palm Beach County

A Year in Review

Staff Liz Downey Executive Director

Cheryl Checkers, MS MHC Clinical Director

Lynsey Poole Program Support Coordinator

Kelsey Joyce Development Coordinator

Chris Inirio Administrative Assistant

Peter Davey Lead Peer Specialist

Valerie Storer Program Data Analyst

2,305 Individuals

Attended NAMI Support Groups

428 People Attended

Peer Council Activities

840 Members of the

Community Attended NAMI Presentations

244 Individuals Completed

Signature Education Courses

2 New Programs:

REACH for Adults and Teens

10 New facilitators for support groups and

education programs.

7,337 Served I n 2014

3,520 Phone Calls

Received

Staff increased from 3 members in 2013 to 8 in 2014

3 New Young Adult and Adolescent Support

Groups

600+

People joined us for our first Walk

All fundraisers: the Cabaret,

Mystery Dinner and Annual

Luncheon sold out! Our

fundraisers brought in over

$215,000 in 2014.

The continued effective legislative efforts of the Public Affairs Committee culminated in securing $200,000 for the Jerome Golden Center’s 12-unit co-occurring residential program.

We conducted 7 Parents and Teachers as Allies workshops in schools across

the county, including PBC School District Professional Development Day

where we presented to 72 school psychologists.

Membership increased by 17% from 2013 to 2014.

We finished 2014 with 439 members and more are

joining every day.

NAMI/PBC’s 42 volunteers

served countless volunteer

hours in our office and

through various programs.

Thank you!

138 CIT Officers Trained

5 Peer Specialists Trained

The CBHC was started by five established local providers: Boys Town of South Florida, Families First of PBC, Center for Child Counseling, FAU Community Health Center and NAMI PBC. The collaborative is also the first and largest grant issued by the Palm Beach County Community Services Department, Financially Assisted Agencies. The purpose of the CBHC is to provide care coordination services to connect children and families with the help they need in Palm Beach County.

Some of the benefits of the Children’s Behavioral Health Collaborative are:

Makes it easier for families to get the help their children and adolescents need.

Provides services and supports to help children and adolescents succeed in school, at home and in the community.

Ensures youth and their families have access to an array of services to meet their individual needs.

Gives families a voice and a choice in setting goals, creating their support team and following the best course of action to help them be suc-cessful.

Improves communication and cooperation between parents, youth and other family supports.

Through the CBHC, NAMI Palm Beach County will be providing REACH for Teens. This program helps teens set goals and provides social/life skills training and peer mentoring to adolescents 13-19. The peer-led Adolescent Support Groups for teens 7th-12th grades. These groups are supervised by licensed mental health professionals and provide teens with a safe place to share challenges and develop coping and problem solving skills. NAMI Family-to-Family Education. A comprehensive program for parents, adult family members, care takers of individuals with mental illness. Outreach presentations throughout the county, primarily in the schools to inform them about the CBHC.

A Tremendous Accomplishment In 2014, NAMI PBC became a founding partner of the

Children’s Behavioral Health Collaborative.

New Space, New Opportunities We moved into our beautiful spacious offices in June and we are so grateful to Palm Healthcare Foundation for the opportunities our new home has created. Two of our collaborative partners, Boys Town and Center for Child Counseling each have an office with us. In additional to granting the office space, Palm Healthcare Founda-tion also provided a 2-year grant funding of the NAMI Provider Edu-cation.

If you haven’t yet visited our new offices please stop by to volunteer or just to say hello!

NAMIWalks: Nov. 15, 2014

Walk Manager, Carol Passeser, cuts the start ribbon with Florida Senator Joseph Abruzzo and

County Commissioner Paulette Burdick

Throughout Walk Day, participants shared positive messages of recovery

and their motivation to walk, in a project called, “Why I Walk.”

NAMIWalks 2014 was a huge success thanks to all of our walkers, volunteers and community partners. We set an original fundraising goal of $50,000, but due to the generosity of sponsors and the passion of hundreds of donors, we raised well over $89,000! These funds will allow NAMI/PBC to implement and expand key programs in 2014 and 2015, thank you! In addition to the financial benefits of our first Walk, we got to enjoy the day with over 600 Palm Beach County residents who came out to John Prince Park to support the cause. One of the most exciting aspects of this was that the ma-jority of the people who attended were not already connected with NAMI and came to learn more about NAMI’s programs. Other newcomers were intro-duced to the Walk through a friend or family member affected by mental ill-ness. We were happy that we were able to share information and resources, as well as joy. We had Florida Senator Joseph Abruzzo, County Commissioner Paulette Bur-dick and the street team from Sunny 107.9 to make our day even more special. The Walk was an all around amazing experience, raising funds and awareness for NAMI’s programs in our community.

Thank You To Our Wonderful Walk Sponsors

$89,343 Raised

Over 600 Attendees $52,737 in In-Kind Donations

45 Teams 3.1 Miles 393 Walkers

Raised 178% of goal THANK YOU!

Revenue

50.4% Fundraising Events

14.5% Membership

13.3% Contributions

16.7% Foundation Grants

5.1% Government Grants

Interest Income <1%

Expenses

74.8% Programs and Services

13.8% Fundraising Events

11.4% Administration

Financial Statements

Our 2014 Programs

NAMI Family-to-Family Course – This comprehensive, evidenced-based, twelve session, six-week course ed-ucates family members and caregivers about mental illnesses, communication and coping skills and offers insight into the emotional impact these diseases have on persons with mental illness and their families. In 2014, Family-to-Family was added to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Na-tional Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices.

NAMI Peer-to-Peer Course – This is a ten week peer-mentored education course open to anyone with a seri-ous mental illness with emphasis on recovery, mindfulness exercises, stress relieving tools, communication skills, relapse prevention and advance directives.

NAMI Provider Education Course – This 15-hour course for mental health professionals is taught by a trained three to five-member team, which includes family members and peers. By emphasizing the biopsychosocial model along with the team members’ “shared lived experience” this course offers insight into the hardships people with mental illness and their families face. Mental health professionals learn to be more empathetic, understand the importance of family input and appreciate the courage and persistence it takes to live with and recover from mental illness.

Support Groups

NAMI Connection Recovery Support Groups: This is a weekly 90-minute structured support group for persons living with mental illness and facilitated by trained peers. These groups focus on finding solutions to Current challenges and promote socialization, which is important to successful recovery. Attendees share coping strategies, mutual encouragement and compassion.

Family Support Groups: These local meetings of family members allow them to candidly discuss the challenges they face as caregivers. NAMI’s message “You Are Not Alone” is shared along with information on coping skills and resources.

Young Adults Group (18-35): This weekly, peer-led group offers a safe, nonjudgmental forum where young adults living with mental illness talk about their challenges, share solutions and receive information on resources.

Adolescent Support Groups: These peer-led local groups are for adolescents with mental health challenges. The groups are facilitated by a licensed mental health counselor and are offered in two groups at each site, 7th-8th graders and 9th-12th graders. Parents can receive information and resources.

REACH for Teens and REACH for Adults — REACH (Resources, Education, Advocacy, Care Coordination and Hope for Adults, Adolescents and their Families) is a free program that provides supports and services to ena-ble individuals with mental illness or behavioral health struggles to meet their full potential. REACH offers an individualized service plan designed around each person’s needs, and the needs of their family. The REACH support team creates a plan to achieve manageable goals and provide the skills, supports and appropriate community referrals to lead the individual to success.

NAMI Parents and Teachers as Allies — This two-hour in-service program focuses on helping school profes-sionals and families within the school community better understand the early warning signs of mental ill-nesses in children and adolescents and how best to intervene so that youth with mental health treatment needs are linked with services. It also covers the lived experience of mental illnesses and how schools can best communicate with families about mental health concerns. Parents and Teachers as Allies is delivered by a trained team including a presenter, a parent of a child with early onset mental illness, an individual with early onset mental illness and a moderator who is also an education professional.

National Alliance on Mental Illness of Palm Beach County Mollie Wilmot Center —Palm Healthcare Pavilion

5205 Greenwood Avenue, Suite 110 West Palm Beach, FL 33407

(561) 588-3477phone — (561) 588-3499fax info@namipbc.org — www.namipbc.org

Our Funders In 2014

To All of Our Funders, Members and Donors

Thank You For Changing Lives!