NAMI helps families understand mental health issues

April 17-- Apr. 17--When their son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia 22 years ago, Gertie and Tasso Kandris felt helpless in their quest for information.

Then they found the National Alliance on Mental Illness -- NAMI.

Back then, Gertie was working full time and commuting to Sacramento every day for work.

"When I would come home, I would spend hours looking on the internet, trying to find information about paranoid schizophrenia, and I always felt more lost and confused," she said.

Despite months of research, the couple felt overwhelmed and helpless as they attempted to understand the scope of what their son was going through.

"We kept asking ourselves, 'Why us? 'Did we do something that caused this?'" Tasso said.

Gertie even began researching her family history, to find out if she or her son's biological father had any schizophrenia in their trees.

"What was really frustrating was we would try to explain what was going on and what we were going through to people, and they just didn't get it," she said.

After stumbling upon an article written about a Family-To-Family Education workshop hosted by NAMI, the couple decided to attend a meeting and find out what the class offered.

What they found was a group that gave them new insight and perspective into what their son was confronted with on a day-to-day basis, along with the tools to describe what he was going through.

NAMI began offering services to families in 1977, when the organization's founders, Harriet Shetler and Beverly Young, bonded over their shared experiences as mothers of sons diagnosed with schizophrenia, as well as their frustration over the lack of resources for people with mental illnesses.

By 1979 the organization stretched across 29 states, with 284 representatives from 59 groups that were able to come together and discuss mental health.

The group became a cathartic place for families who had felt the pressure to not talk about mental health issues, because of the stigma associated with them.

NAMI hosts classes both for people with mental health challenges and for their family members, who might struggle to understand what their loved one deals with or need a place to learn how to deal with their own challenges. So NAMI created the Family-To-Family Education program.

The workshop helps family members understand mental illness diagnoses and talk through the problems they have.

"The stigma surrounding mental illness makes it hard for families to understand what is going on and how to cope with it," Tasso said.

Facilitators and educators offer insight into mental illnesses and guide families toward strategies they can use to tackle the challenges that come with them.

"The group offers a structured learning environment that allows people to dive deeper into the nuances of the illness," Gertie said.

After attending Family-to-Family, the couple knew that they wanted to give back to the organization and help spread awareness.

"We have been giving presentations at churches and schools. We educate people about the traits and characteristics of mental health behaviors," Gertie said.

The couple has also taken a more proactive approach in volunteering with NAMI after retiring.

The couple is currently working to get a bill written that would help streamline communication between the courts and mental health advocacy groups in California. The aim would be to give nonprofit advocacy groups more tools to help people in prisons get access to mental health care.

In state prisons, 73 percent of women and 55 percent of men have at least one mental health challenge, according to the California Department of Justice. In federal prisons, 61 percent of women and 44 percent of men face mental health issues, and in local jails, it's 75 percent of women and 63 percent of men, the agency states.

Tasso believes the local area could do more to aid people with mental illnesses.

He sits on the board for San Joaquin County Behavioral Health Services and has witnessed the steep decline in funding for mental health in the region.

"We do not have any bed facilities available to children dealing with mental illness, and we do not have a drug detox facility in this region," he said.

Both Tasso and Gertie believe that the only time mental health is openly discussed is in the face of tragedy or when discussing homelessness.

"The light that has been cast in mental health has not been good. Very rarely do people ever talk about the geniuses with mental health issues or the day-to-day people who deal with it," Tasso said.

Gertie believes the reason people hesitate to reach out for help with mental health issues is that society has little knowledge about such challenges. Because of that, she said, people hide the fact that they or someone they know struggles with depression, bipolar disorder or other illnesses.

"Many people are unaware that mental health is like any other disease, except it affects a person's brain instead of their body," she said.

One of the misconceptions, the couple said, is a person is synonymous with their illness or that they are branded by their mental health challenge. That's not true.

The couple believes that the purpose of organizations like NAMI is to help people recognize and confront mental health challenges.

"People need to be educated about mental health issues, instead of ignoring it," Gertie said.

NAMI works to help people recognize that there is hope, and to provide consistency and guidance to individuals with mental health challenges and their families.

NAMI will sponsor a new series of Family-to-Family classes from May 4 to June 15. For more information or to register, call 209-468-3755, email info@namisanjoaquin.org or visit www.namisanjoaquin.org.

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