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NAMI-Blue Ridge Family Alliance NEWSLETTER |
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NAMI-Blue Ridge Family Alliance NEWSLETTER |
Meeting Schedule
Dr. Paul A. Lombardi, program director at the UVA Center for Bio-Medical Ethics, will discuss laws on patient confidentiality, as well as other legal issues.
Six out of every seven mentally persons in the United States receive inadequate treatment for their illness, according to researchers at the Harvard Medical School. As reported in May in the Journal of Internal Medicine, the doctors point out that although improvements have been made in diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, only a small percentage of mentally ill persons received treatment that met the standard of care for treating depression, panic disorder, and anxiety disorder. And even among those with the most serious mental illness, only 25% of the group studied received adequate treatment. Uninsured black men are at the highest risk for substandard care.
Our most sincere thanks go out to Shirley Bolton, Sally Rinehart, Betsy Looney and any others who helped with the publicity for our October 19th speaker meeting featuring Dr. Gottesman. What a wonderful speaker! Hopefully, the great turnout for that meeting is also an indication of a well-working phone tree. If you are on the phone tree and did not receive a call reminding you of the meeting, or if you would like to be added to the phone tree, please contact me. You can leave a voice mail message at 970-1257 or an e-mail message at donnal@regionten.org. If you have an e-mail address, please send it to me so I can update our records.
The format of our Family-to Family Support Group is working well in our existing group. We have a couple of new members in that group and of course always welcome new-comers. As this group is specifically designed for family
members of those with brain disorders, there has been some talk of forming another group for those with brain disorders. If anyone would be interested in joining or facilitating such a group, please contact me. There is one such group, Even Keel, which meets on the 1st and 3rd Mondays at 7:15 p.m.
at the Gordon Avenue Library. Patricia facilitates that group and can be called at 296-7031 for more information.
Donna Loney
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Virginia is hoping people
will make use of a state tax credit program that allows people to get back on a
dollar for dollar basis the contributions between $50 and $200 made to this
organization. This tax credit can be deducted from the individual’s or couple’s
state tax bill.
NAMI-VA has been accepted into a State Neighborhood Assistance Act
program that allows individuals who contribute to it to receive a certificate
that can be used to claim the tax credit. There is also a program that allows
businesses that contribute between $899 and $400,000 to claim a credit for 45%
of their contribution. NAMI-VA needs to raise $30,000 before the end of the
year to meet its budget, so NAMI-Blue Ridge Family Alliance urges all to make a
contribution and claim the credit. For further information, call NAMI-VA at
1-888-486-8264 or email them at vaami@aol.com.
Meetings are
held at the Region Ten Building, 800 Preston Avenue, 5:30pm to 7:00pm