Resident seeks local chapter of national group
A small group of local residents met Nov. 12 to discuss the
possibility of starting a chapter of the National Alliance on
Mental Illness in San Benito County.
Elizabeth Lopez, a case manager II with the San Benito County
Behavioral Health Department, said she first started thinking about
the possibility of a chapter last spring.
Resident seeks local chapter of national group
A small group of local residents met Nov. 12 to discuss the possibility of starting a chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in San Benito County.
Elizabeth Lopez, a case manager II with the San Benito County Behavioral Health Department, said she first started thinking about the possibility of a chapter last spring.
“We had during May – Mental Health month – a speaker from Santa Clara,” she said, of the visitor from a chapter of NAMI. “He has a family member who lives here who has to go to Santa Clara to meetings. The wheels started turning.”
Lopez started looking into what it would take to start a chapter in San Benito County. Since NAMI is a nonprofit organization, the Behavioral Health Department staff cannot start a chapter.
But Lopez and Yani Bundros, a clinical supervisor, said they would support a chapter, such as offering meeting spaces at the Esperanza Center on San Benito Street.
“NAMI is its one separate thing, but we will offer space, support,” Bundros said.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness started in 1979 when six independent support groups for parents of adult children with severe mental illness decided to combine their resources to hold a conference in Madison, Wis., according to a NAMI press release. More than 284 people attended the first meeting.
Since then, the group has evolved as a support for parents, spouses, siblings, children and friends of those with mental illnesses. There are 1,200 affiliates across the country, with more than 220,000 members.
During her research, Lopez said that the way NAMI is set up, one of the other chapters of NAMI in a nearby county could not “adopt” Hollister as residents work to get a local chapter going. The only option local residents have now is to drive to a meeting in San Jose, Monterey or Santa Cruz.
“This is a very basic starting point to see who is interested and who wants to be on the board,” Lopez said.
Some of the local residents who showed up for the informational meeting about starting the new chapter have done just that. About half the people in attendance said they had been to meetings in another county.
Those in attendance at the meeting talked about their own experiences with family members who suffer from various mental illnesses, from major depression to obsessive-compulsive disorder to the substance-abuse programs that often complicate it.
One resident described listening to other families talking about their experience as having a light go on.
“It sounds like everyone is affected and there is a need in San Benito County,” Lopez said. “I thought why not in Hollister? There is a need.”
At the end of the meeting, two members had volunteered to look at the stack of paperwork that is required to start a new chapter, which includes filing as a nonprofit with the state, and the group decided on the next date to continue the planning process.
Anyone who is interested in getting involved with the planning process or would be interested in finding out more about serving on the board of directors can call Elizabeth Lopez at 636-4020. The next planning meeting is scheduled for Dec. 3 at 5:30 p.m. at the Esperanza Center, at the corner of Fifth and San Benito streets.
