Lisa Guardiola still counts her blessings that her mom reached out to the National Alliance on Mental Illness when she was diagnosed as an adult with schizophrenia in 2004.
The organization helped her mom learn how to tackle her illness, advocate for her needs and take care of herself.
“NAMI, to be honest, saved my and my family’s life,” Guardiola said. “It helped me realize I am not alone in my mental health and recovery process.
“It gave me a community that didn’t ostracize me and made me feel that despite having a disorder, that I could accomplish anything I wanted to, and that there were people who cared about my well-being and were there for me and made me feel I was loved.”
Guardiola and her mother, Marianne Bithos, now lead the nonprofit’s south suburban chapter, which is hosting this year’s state conference, Oct. 14 and 15 at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills.
The conference, Building Unity in Our Community, is from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day and offers a chance to learn more about the organization’s services as well as discussions about challenges people with mental illness face. Some of the inequities in mental health treatment in the region will also be highlighted.
Registration is at https://namiillinois.org/unityincommunity/ and the cost is $120 for both days, or $80 for one-day registration. People who live with a diagnosed mental health concern can register for half price. Information is at [email protected].
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Breakout sessions include “Family Matters: Mental Wellness for Every Stage & Age of Life,” “Architecture for Inclusion” and “Creating Recovery and Wellness Tools.”
Organizers said holding the conference in the south suburbs was important because of the many people in the area who needed mental health services. One goal is also to build a coalition of advocates to increase access to more mental health services in the region.
Bithos said she often receives calls from family members of loved ones recently discharged from a Chicago psychiatric hospital who had trouble finding help in the south suburban area. Clinics were also closed during the pandemic, adding to their difficulties.
“We have a lack of psych beds in the south suburbs and therefore patients are transferred to hospitals in Chicago and not near their homes,” said Bithos. “After discharge it is hard for hospitals to coordinate outpatient care for a patient because, again we lack enough providers to take care of the population in the south suburbs.”
Andy Wade, executive director of NAMI Illinois, said young people, in particular, are in dire need of help, pointing to the rise in youth mental health problems and suicide rates.
“We were seeing issues in equity being compounded by significant growth (of mental health problems) across the board,” Wade said, noting it is a nationwide trend. “We picked the location for a reason — what is happening in the southwest suburbs does exemplify some of the issues we’re trying to tackle statewide in terms of gaps.”
Some of NAMI’s resources include training for parents of youth and adolescents experiencing mental health problems, help for veterans and their families, and support groups. Bithos and Guardiola said they hope the conference and resources will make as much of a difference for struggling families as it did for their own.
“At the time I was at my worst, I was really not rooted in reality and there was a disconnect between the community with me and my family,” recalled Guardiola, who teaches mental health first aid and QPR suicide prevention at Sertoma Centre, Inc. “My mom really didn’t know how to help me.
“By being able to go to NAMI and have the support group for her, it really brought our family back together,” Guardiola said.
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.