A video – What is depression? Well worth watching as even if you are not a sufferer it is really helpful with regard to enabling those who do suffer.

As a community we can learn from each other, share experience. Any one of us might be a “first responder” to someone who lives here and suffers illness. If you have something to say, join in the Community Conversations. Look at “Can You Help“. Come to the BI NAMI events that are advertised in The Block Island Times and on the Block Island Bulletin Board. Make contact or comment in these community posts. Scroll down below. Write a post – please ask. You might have found an article of interest – please send.

September 2015: Following from Community Conversations, and talks [e.g. Reed Cosper emphasized how Rhode Island has reduced spending on Mental Health] NAMI BI will prepare an Assessment of Needs. In the meantime – this is what we already know.

The only regular mental health service available on Block Island is that offered by NAMI BI. Emergency or more sporadic need to individuals who have not previously sought regular appointment is given as well as can be managed, depending on the point of access. This can come through the Block Island Medical Center (BIHS) or the Police Department as well as through NAMI BI Case manager, and can involve anything from advice or support to necessary escort off the island.

The island context also means there is variation in need depending on the time of year. The winter population of permanent residents is less than 1000 people. During the summer season, May – October, the need for services applies to island seasonal workers, as well as summer residents who return regularly each year. There are also visitors/tourists who might need a more temporary engagement with the program. Summer population estimate is about 10,000 people.

Mental illness suffers so much from stigma, that many people do not realize how many individuals suffer and their families and friends absorb consequences and also keep quiet. Given Rhode Island statistics* and the number of people in the local population, as the services become better known, it would seem that the number of individuals using the service will continue to increase as they have done each year they have been offered. At one time in 2014, there was a waiting time of four weeks for a client needing a first appointment. Now, in 2015, the current operating process for all activities is only funded for the limited number of hours used by the Case Manager in organizing the once weekly telemedicine appointments. The once every two weeks counselor visits are no longer available due to the retirement of the counselor and a replacement has not been found. The hours for which the manager, Tracy Fredericks, is employed are being used to the maximum, and indeed beyond as she responds willingly to emergency, to enabling referrals since the counselor retirement, and other issues that take more of her time. Extra time is not funded.

Educational meetings mostly take place during the summer season when it is hoped that a wider audience can be reached. The summer programs presented have been made possible by the generosity of the speakers who have given their time freely, and by the venue (Island Free Library) also free. Members of the NAMI BI Board give their time to organize the presentations. In the past, some possible speakers have had to refuse as travel and residence costs on the island could not be borne by either speaker or NAMI BI.

NAMI BI needs are threefold:

First the obvious one for any non-profit, we need donations in order to keep going. As described in more detail below, we want to offer more services and expand programs, both of which are indeed required. A generous donor will match any gift you make so that we can continue to provide psychiatric services and support on Block Island. Donate to NAMI Block Island, PO Box D2, BI RI 02807. All gifts are fully tax deductible.

Second, apart from the case manager, we work with volunteered time and effort. We deeply appreciate the partnerships of Butler Hospital and South Shore Center, the liaison with Block Island Health Services, the free venue for programs offered by the Island Free Library and the publicity from Block Island Times. Expenses are minimal.

For anyone wants to become involved and offer their time, as and when they can do so, there is no requirement for professional knowledge or past experience, just willingness.

Third, as we begin to work out what is meant by creating community conversations on mental health, to offer these and to offer support groups for families, we will be making contact with many other groups on the island. There may be a need to undertake training, or, to bring facilitators to the island. We look forward to interest and collaboration in the two-way discussions that help all of us with these initiatives.

Community opinion is valuable and experiences can be shared. 

More detail: In 2014 about $12,000 ensured the provision of help to residents. If the hours expand as we would like, we will need about $16,000 in 2015. Of course what would be wonderful would be sufficient donation that enabled us to set up an endowment fund, so that we can be more certain that services each year can be properly managed. All donations are helpful, and not just for the monetary value, they show us that the work is valued, that others find it worthwhile. Currently all donations have averaged $12,000 per year over the past three years. This does not allow for any effective increase in operating costs.

A generous donor has offered to match donations received.

Donate to NAMI Block Island, PO Box D2, BI RI 02807.

All gifts are fully tax deductible. 

Both nationally and in Rhode Island State, SAMSHA [The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration] are prioritizing initiatives that help provide treatment and services for people with mental and substance use disorders, support the families of people with mental and substance use disorders, build strong and supportive communities, prevent costly behavioral health problems, and promote better health for all Americans. “Now is the Time” is the President’s plan to increase access to mental health services. SAMHSA has played a key role in supporting a number of activities outlined in the plan to help build safer communities. NAMI BI is already planning to follow SAMSHA guidelines to launch Community Conversations on Mental Health to enable the Block Island Community. We have begun to build a Community Team (working collaboratively with other groups in the community). We also plan to offer a family series of group meetings.

To do this effectively we believe that at a minimum, we need access to funding for training group facilitators, and for travel, to training events. We think we are already using all the local expertise we have, given freely.

That is, our mission to provide Services, Support and Education, all need funding in the short term. In particular, the ongoing requirement to fund the Case Manager is a necessity for the services to continue even as they are now.

Donate to NAMI Block Island, PO Box D2, BI RI 02807.

*Trends Themes and Effective Practices in State legislation – NB Rhode Island has reduced its spending on Mental Health in past years, not because of less need. Maybe we need political influence too?

This letter was published in the Block Island Times in June 2015.

In the past few years, the US Department of Health and Human Services has paid more attention to mental health issues, which have been the poor underfunded relation for far too long, even though statistics suggest that as many as one in five of us will be impacted by mental illness in our lives. They are recommending that communities have conversations around this issue. A national effort is being promoted though the department, through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA] and the National Alliance on Mental Illness [NAMI]. NAMI Block Island, formerly the Mental Health Task Force, is responding to the Community Conversations idea. We like the core principle: To bring two-way conversations about mental health into the community so that the various responses to behavioral health issues can be addressed in ways that complement existing local activities, are better coordinated, consistent, and in the best interests of all.

In our unique community here, we know well that many things have happened, are happening, and that there are separated and overlapping aims as different groups strive to do what they do as well as possible and without getting in each others’ way, too much. And of course we are often the same people in different groups trying to remember which hat we are wearing today. NAMI BI members are arranging to meet with individuals from various island organizations and groups. But, we, like you, have had to think how to be sensible about demands on our time, so we are starting slowly, with leaders or directors of groups, at the points where mental health impact is known to occur. Through fall, we intend to widen the circles, hear from everyone, not just chiefs and chairpersons, notice the overlaps and take in and share the different pictures that others possess. Our intention is to reach ‘everybody’ by this time next year, but we hope you will feel free to reach out and contact us without waiting if you have something to say about the health or otherwise of mental health in Block Island.

I am writing this letter because it matters to me, and also because I feel there is no way to get this right, whatever right is, but we can almost certainly do better when we all work together and have listened to each other. The first experience (that I know of) that put me in contact with mental illness was when I was 20-something, a young teacher of a child who literally ate the palms of his hands, every day. I had not a clue what to do, reported to the head-teacher and the school doctor who may or may not have known what to do either, but at the parents’ evening it became obvious that the really ill person in this was the boy’s father, and there was no way I knew how to respond, nor was there any group to turn to for help. I felt totally on my own, helpless.

I have sometimes wished I had never begun to look for better responses, and enter into the various kinds of learning and training that followed over the years, but mostly I am incredibly glad. Why? Because, I didn’t know what I would gain. I am not afraid of mental illness, or of physical, though disturbed and saddened by either. I am not a doctor or psychiatrist or therapist. However, I do know that when others near me in professional and in personal life have shown signs of illness or become ill, I have been able to hang in and help them find help. Also I have known that often good intentions have been frustrated by – guess what – separation and overlap and right hands not knowing what lefts are up to. So I do like this idea of Community Conversations about the health of mental health here. I hope that those who join in will also like it. [See more and various links on our new website http://blockislandmentalhealth.org.]

Yours sincerely, Elspeth Crawford