Students looking for a way to create awareness and provide a helping hand to those who suffer from mental illness can join the NAMI Club at Moorpark College.
National Alliance of Mental Illnesses (NAMI) is the nation’s leading voice for mental illnesses. Many join this club for their friends or family members who have been affected by one such illness.
Not a group focused on treatment of mental illness, NAMI helps show people suffering that there are resources out there to help them, including counseling to help families cope with a member su ering from a mental health condition.
English professor David Birchman, whose son su ers from schizophrenia, advises the club along with English Professor Diane Scrofano. Two years ago Birchman reached out to Moorpark College’s Health Coordinator Sharon Manakas to get the club started. Shortly after the club was up and running, Scrofano signed on to co-advise the club. Scrofano said she suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as a teenager.
For Birchman, the ordeal of searching for help for his son inspired him to advise the club.
“You can’t imagine how di cult it is for people to get the assistance they need nowadays,” said Birchman. “It really is a maze for people. I thought by starting this club we would be able to help people get the information, so they don’t have to waste the months and weeks and time my wife and I did.”
NAMI also endeavors to fight the stigma that comes along with mental illness by helping educate people how to properly address someone with a mental illness.
At the club’s first meeting members discussed why they joined the club and shared experiences about friends or family members who su er from mental illness.
Club members elected their officers, including president Jesse Galvan, a 21-year- old Psychology major.
“The first step toward change is awareness. The sec- ond step is acceptance,” Galvan said. “Awareness allows us to accept dissimilarities that make us humans who we are.”
Students interested in joining the club can do so on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 3 p.m. when the club will hold its next meeting in Academic Center 312.
