Education, Advocacy, Outreach, and 

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May is Men­tal Heal Aware­ness Month

Since its incep­tion in 1949, Men­tal Health Aware­ness Month has been a cor­ner­stone of address­ing the chal­lenges faced by mil­lions of Amer­i­cans liv­ing with men­tal health con­di­tions. Through­out May, NAMI Lex­ing­ton active­ly par­tic­i­pates in this nation­al move­ment, ded­i­cat­ed to erad­i­cat­ing stig­ma, extend­ing sup­port, fos­ter­ing pub­lic edu­ca­tion and advo­cat­ing for poli­cies that pri­or­i­tize the well-being of indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies affect­ed by men­tal illness. 

This year, NAMI is cel­e­brat­ing Men­tal Health Aware­ness Month with the Take the Moment cam­paign. We encour­age you to join us in fos­ter­ing open dia­logues, cul­ti­vat­ing empa­thy and under­stand­ing. We also urge you to share our resources to sup­port indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies on their jour­ney towards men­tal well­ness. Through “Take the Moment,” we shine a spot­light on NAMI Lex­ing­ton’s array of sig­na­ture pro­grams includ­ing: NAMI Fam­i­ly-to-Fam­i­ly, NAMI Fam­i­ly & Friends, NAMI In Our Own Voice, NAMI Peer-to-Peer, NAMI Sup­port Groups and our invalu­able nation­al NAMI HelpLine, which is a free, nation­wide peer-sup­port ser­vice pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion, resource refer­rals and sup­port to peo­ple liv­ing with a men­tal health con­di­tion, their fam­i­ly mem­bers and care­givers, men­tal health providers and the public.

 

 

 

STOP House Bill 5 All Ken­tuck­ians should be able to feel safe in their com­mu­ni­ties, but House Bill 5 does not fur­ther that goal. Instead, it turns back the clock to the tried-and-failed poli­cies of yes­ter­day that dam­aged vul­ner­a­ble fam­i­lies and mas­sive­ly increased incar­cer­a­tion with­out ben­e­fit­ing communities. HB 5 would: Crim­i­nal­ize home­less­ness by mak­ing “unlaw­ful camp­ing” a crime, while also restrict­ing fund­ing to proven meth­ods of fight­ing homelessness. Increase crim­i­nal penal­ties relat­ed to fen­tanyl, an approach that has been shown to raise the risk of fatal over­dose by scar­ing peo­ple away from call­ing for help. Increase our already glob­al­ly high incar­cer­a­tion lev­els through an anti­quat­ed “three strikes” pro­vi­sion and oth­er larg­er penal­ties that research shows aren’t effec­tive at reduc­ing crime and improv­ing safety. Fur­ther crowd local jails by incar­cer­at­ing more peo­ple pre-tri­al just because they are too poor to afford bail. CALL TODAY Please call the Leg­isla­tive Mes­sage Line today to say NO to HB 5 – 1–800-372‑7181 OR Send a let­ter to KY law­mak­ers here. For more infor­ma­tion on the bill and what it does, check out these sources: Louisville Repub­li­cans File Safer Ken­tucky Act (Spec­trum News 1)  Crit­ics Say KY House Bill ‘crim­i­nal­izes pover­ty’ with penal­ties for home­less­ness (Lex­ing­ton Her­ald Leader) House Bill 5 Dou­bles Down on Inef­fec­tive Poli­cies That Will Fur­ther Increase Incar­cer­a­tion and Hard­ship (Ken­tucky Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic Policy)    House Bill 5 can be viewed here

Click Here for a complete one pager of all NAMI Lexington programs that links to more specific information. Printable Download (PDF)

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   Fam­i­ly & Friends 

 

Join us for the Anx­i­ety Workshop 

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Schiz­o­phre­nia Alliance Group — Every Sat­ur­day, at 3:00pm at Par­tic­i­pa­tion Sta­tion. 
This group is a nation­al­ly rec­og­nized 6‑step pro­gram for indi­vid­u­als deal­ing with Schiz­o­phre­nia, Psy­chosis, Schizoaf­fec­tive D/O, and relat­ed dis­or­ders. If you can not join us in per­son please join is via zoom with the link found at https://tinyurl.com/37vfs2jd 
The group will typ­i­cal­ly run 60–90 min­utes and fol­low the guid­ance of the “Blue Book” which was devel­oped by Joanne Ver­ban­ic, the founder of Schiz­o­phre­nia Anony­mous. 
Cer­tifi­cat­ed Facil­i­ta­tor Kevin Hag­ger­ty, APSS

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2023 NAMI Lexington’s Annual Report

Click Here for 2023 Annual Report

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For more information on NAMI’s free programs and affordable mental health training,
please call 859–272‑7891.