*Organized in 1983*NAMI Kenosha County, Inc. is a non-profit corporation 501 ( c ) (3)

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP (CALENDAR YEAR) INCLUDES: *NAMI of Wisconsin dues and National NAMI dues

Please send to: NAMI, Kenosha County, Inc. PO Box 631, Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141

A newsletter for those interested in Promoting the well being of individuals and families affected by Mental Illness

Volume 27, Issue I

Co-President’s Corner

Spring 2016

Co-President’s Corner Wow… It’s just about Easter and we are

off and into our 33rd year of improving

mental health awareness in our community

though advocacy, education, and support. We

had our annual meeting and election of our

board of directors on February 25. A list of

the board members and officers appear later

in the newsletter along with a photo. I hope

you all have had an opportunity to view our

completely redesigned website and the great

work that Kris Coen does in making this

happen. We would also like to welcome, Jane

Davis, our most recent addition to our board

of directors.

Once again a big THANK YOU to the volunteers who make NAMI Kenosha County go!! Our Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training and Crisis Intervention Partner (CIP) training programs are scheduled for 2016. CIP #14 was completed on Feb 22-23, 2016 with 40 attendees. A photo of one of CIP #14 appears later in the newsletter. Our “Circle of Care” continues to grow with 165 CIT and 578 CIP. CIT #7 is scheduled for Sept 12-16, 2016 and CIP #15 November 14-15, 2016. We try to give the folks who attend our CIT/CIP training sessions a better toolkit to deal with people who are living with a mental illness who may be in a crisis situation. These programs are evidenced based and are extremely effective. NAMI Kenosha County is also trying to give our adolescents a better toolkit to help themselves and their fellow students with our “Ending the Silence” program. THANK YOU to KUSD for its continuing support. On March 11, 2016 we completed an internal audit of our affiliate. Many thanks to the audit team of Colleen Cramlet, Linda Burman, and Ron Frederick. And thank you to our treasurer, Dick Guenther, who scheduled and assisted in the audit. We are in a good financial position that allows us to continue to offer our signature NAMI

programs at “NO COST” to the community. A big thank you to the most generous individual donations which we receive, as well as the contributions of the Mary Frost Ashley Charitable Trust, the Kenosha Lions Foundation, St. Mathews Episcopal Church, Bradford Community Church, and the Communications Department of Joint Services among others. The customers of Tenuta’s, Walmart, and Richter’s Marketplace have also been most generous during our annual fundraisers. We also owe a great a big THANK YOU to Dick Guenther who coordinated, directed, and completed our current re-affiliation requirements that were required by NAMI National. Two additional programs that have been

very effective are Walkabout Rewards and a

pilot fitness program with Community

Support Program (CSP), Comprehensive

Communtiy Service (CCS), and the

Kenosha YMCA. Both of these voluntary

programs work to promote overall wellness.

People affected with serious and persistent

mental illness have a 25 year shorter life span.

Better fitness can help. “What’s good for the

heart is good for the brain.” Ninety five

people have completed Walkabout Rewards.

Two hundred twenty folks are currently

participating in our NAMI/YMCA Wellness

program. We have expanded this program to

include members of Bridges Community

Center and participants in the Behavioral

Health Treatment Court and Drug & Alcohol

Court. NAMI Kenosha has currently

purchased two annual group memberships @

$888 to facilitate this program. There have

been no incidents since starting this program.

It works!

NAMI Kenosha also supports the Oxford

House Program in Kenosha. Oxford House

is a recovery program for addicts many of

whom have a mental illness. The members

operate the house, do UA drops, attend support

groups as part of their recovery. You can stay

as long as you want as long as you are clean.

This structured residential setting has been

very effective for clients in both Drug &

Co-President’s Corner 1

Postcard Announcement 2

Mark Your Calendars 2

Amazon Donations 2

Board Members Photograph 2

YMCA Program

Ending the Silence

Family to Family Report

Gateway CIT #6 Photograph

Bridges Calendar

Poem by Nicole Hyatt

3

3

3

3

Insert

Insert

Inside this issue:

Alcohol Court and Behavioral Health

Treatment Court. We have three Oxford Houses in Kenosha:

#1 Oxford House Ayers (7) 2014-45th

Street 53140 November 29, 2010 (men)

#2 Oxford House Lena (9)1630-56th

Street 53140 July 1, 2012 (women)

#3 Oxford House Jerry (5) (may go to 7)

2414-61st Street Feb 1, 2016 (men)

**note (number) after the house name refers

to the number of available beds

Since 2014 NAMI Kenosha has provided

$200 stipends required to get folks started in

the Oxford House Program totaling $5,000 to

date. So far in 2016 we have provided

$1,200.

Please let us know if we can be of any

assistance and thank you for your continued

support. We continually fight stigma and

support recovery.

All the best,

Lisa and Jack

*Organized in 1983*NAMI Kenosha County, Inc. is a non-profit corporation 501 ( c ) (3)

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP (CALENDAR YEAR) INCLUDES: *NAMI of Wisconsin dues and National NAMI dues

Please send to: NAMI, Kenosha County, Inc. PO Box 631, Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141

VOLUME 27, ISSUE I KENOSHA PAGE 2

Board of Directors

Co-Presidents

Jack Rose

Lisa Zanin

Treasurer

Dick Guenther

Secretary

Officer Kelly Andrichik

Members at Large

Kris Coen

Brad Cramlet

Jane Davis

Janet Deleo

Adalia Shchurowsky

Carol Slovachek

Walter Stern

Officer Jeff Wamboldt

Steve Solms, Member Emeritus

Get short, timely messages from NAMI.

Twitter is a rich source of instantly updated

information. It's easy to stay updated on an

incredibly wide variety of topics. Join today and

follow @NAMICommunicate www.facebook.com/officialNAMI

Find NAMI on the WEB

www.nami.org

NAMI Kenosha

www.namikenosha.org

NAMI WI

www.namiwisconsin.org

NAMI Racine

www.nami.racine.org

Amazon Donations

Nami Kenosha is currently enrolled in the Amazon.com Smile program. It is an

easy way to get donations from Amazon. You need to sign up for the

AmazonSmile.com program and designate NAMI Kenosha as your preferred

charity. Whenever you order anything on -line from Amazon, simply start at

AmazonSmile.com and NAMI Kenosha will get ½ of 1% of the cost of the total

order donated to NAMI Kenosha. It doesn’t add anything to the cost of your

order but NAMI Kenosha gets a monthly rebate based on the orders they receive.

Membership Renewal Please check your mailing label to

determine when your membership is

up for renewal. In order to renew

just use the blank form in the

newsletter and mail to

NAMI Kenosha

P.O. Box 631 Kenosha, WI 53141.

Mark Your Calendars Upcoming events for 2016

Support Groups at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church 6:00 -7:30 pm April 14

th and 28

th, May 12

th and 26

th, June 9

th and 23

rd

County Support Group at the County Building on corner of Highways 45 and 50

April 14th, May 12

th, June 9

th

NAMI Board Meetings 5:30 pm at Bridges April 7

th, May 5

th, June 2

nd

Other NAMI Events May 18

th 5 pm Bridges and 6 pm Civic Park Mental Health Awareness Vigil

June TBA Bridges and NAMI Picnic September 12

th - 16

th #7 CIT (Crisis Intervention Training)

November 14th

and 15th

#15 CIP (Crisis Intervention Partner)

December 3rd

Christmas Party at Reuther High School

Announcement Phasing out of Post Cards

We are in the process of phasing out

the mailing of post cards as a

reminder for support group days and

times. If you would like to continue

to get the post cards for the support

groups call: 262-652-3606.

Also check us out on our very own

web site: www.namikenosha.org.

The support groups and newsletter

as well as many other articles and

information about mental health

have been included on our site.

Thank you Kris Coen for all of your

hard work with this endeavor!

From Left to Right: (Front) Kelly Andrichik, Jane Davis, Kris Coen, Adalia Shchurowsky (Back) Jack Rose, Dick Guenther, Jeff Wamboldt, Carol Slovachek, Walter Stern, Brad Cramlet, Lisa Zanzin

(Not pictured Janet Deleo & Steve Solms)

*Organized in 1983*NAMI Kenosha County, Inc. is a non-profit corporation 501 ( c ) (3)

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP (CALENDAR YEAR) INCLUDES: *NAMI of Wisconsin dues and National NAMI dues

Please send to: NAMI, Kenosha County, Inc. PO Box 631, Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141

PAGE 3 KENOSHA VOLUME 27, ISSUE I

Family to Family Classes Report

We are currently holding our yearly Family-To-

Family classes. One class of 20 participants began

on January 12th at the Kenosha County building at

the intersection of Highways 45 and 50. The

second class began with 25 participants at the Job

Center, 8600 Sheridan Road, on February 2nd.

This is the biggest total enrollment that we have

ever had. We try to offer the 12 week class each

year in January. It offers great knowledge and

support to the family members and friends of those

that are dealing with a mental illness. The feedback

that we get tells us that the class is very valuable to

those that take it. We would like to thank the

teachers that are so willing to share their time and

knowledge to keep the program working.

YMCA Program Hello Everyone, I wanted to start this article with a huge thank

you to Cheryl Hervat and the Kenosha YMCA for all their

support for the NAMI/YMCA membership program! You may

not know that Kenosha NAMI started a program with the support

of the YMCA to provide a group membership for adults living

with mental illness in our community. This membership has

grown to more than 200 names and 40-50 visits per month.

NAMI Kenosha pays a membership fee of more than $1800.00 a

year to provide this opportunity. What is no surprise to me is that

in over two years and 1300 visits there has never been an issue

with anyone who has participated. I encourage you to use this

great resource. Today’s new generation psychotropic medications

have been designed to minimize extra pyramidal (involuntary

movements) and more overt side effects, but the newer

medications have other side effects that can be less recognizable

like weight gain and other metabolic, disorders that is less harsh

initially; but over time can create health problems like diabetes,

hypercholesteremia, heart disease, obesity- all of which can have

significant impact on your overall health and longevity! One

thing that many people with mental illness including me, can

easily put off or forget is self-care. Getting enough sleep, the best

nutrition you can afford, exercise, and a positive social

environment can go a long way to help reduce and in many cases

significantly reduce or eliminate these metabolic side effects.

Many people with mental illness including me at times feel like

we have little or no control over what happens to us. Nothing

could be farther from the truth. The journey starts with a single

step. Taking action creates confidence and reduces feelings of

helplessness. Take action and responsibility for yourself and your

health, start today! If you are interested in the NAMI/YMCA

membership program contact me at: Brad Cramlet,

bcramlet@wi.rr.com, 262-914-0522

All the best, Brad

Ending The Silence

Lisa Zanin- ETS Coordinator

Last fall a NAMI signature program called Ending

the Silence was rolled out in local area high

schools. NAMI Ending the Silence is a 50 minute

program designed to give students an opportunity

to learn about mental illness through a power

point, short videos and personal testimony.

Through the presentation students learn symptoms

and indicators of mental illness and are given ideas

of how to help themselves, friends or a family

member who may need support. This program is

delivered by a trained two person team including a

young adult who is relatable to students and shares

their own journey with a diagnosed mental illness.

A primary goal of this program is to create a

generation of students that are well positioned to

eradicate stigma associated with mental health

challenges through education and advocacy.

An enormous thank you to a group of very special

people who are willing to be the presenters for this

NAMI program: Walter Stern, Dan Guenther,

Mark Zanin, Sara Lehrke, Sara Hamby, Janet

Deleo, Adalia Shchurowsky. At this writing we

have presented at Tremper, Indian Trail Academy,

Bradford and Harborside which gives us a total of

780 folks who have heard this presentation. The

feedback from staff and students has been positive

with many asking pertinent questions about mental

illness. We will go back to Tremper, Indian Trail

and Bradford this spring and we hope to also

present in the Kenosha County high schools.

*Organized in 1983*NAMI Kenosha County, Inc. is a non-profit corporation 501 ( c ) (3)

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP (CALENDAR YEAR) INCLUDES: *NAMI of Wisconsin dues and National NAMI dues

Please send to: NAMI, Kenosha County, Inc. PO Box 631, Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141

National Alliance on Mental Illness

P.O. Box 631 · Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141

NAMI Membership… I am interested in an Annual Membership

$35.00 per Individual $3.00 Open Door (Low Income)

Enclosed is my tax-deductible contribution to NAMI, Kenosha County

__________$Enclosed. DONATIONS ARE ACCEPTED

Please make checks payable to NAMI Kenosha County

NAME______________________________________ ADDRESS__________________________________________

CITY ____________________________ STATE__________ ZIP_______________ PHONE_________________

EMAIL ____________________________________________ Note: Membership is for a year from the date of joining

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

The mailing label should include the expiration date for your membership. If you haven’t been receiving the state or national

publications please let us know. The national publication is sent four times a year and the state mailing are bi-monthly.