“We are no longer, accepting the things we cannot change, we are changing the things we cannot accept…” The Families and Advocates of the 4% are mad as hell and we refuse to accept the current system that often refuses to even acknowledge the harm and the suffering caused from serious mental illnesses. So, we are taking a variety of actions by organizing and strategizing to create change that matters. We know that it takes more then a Facebook group to make change, to resist and to persist. Sometimes it takes a revolution on both the inside and the outside. In our last update, we shared a strategy that some of our co signers are pursuing to form a ticket to run for the NAMI National Board of Directors to push change from inside the NAMI Organization. The “Focus on SMI” ticket is now being created and we will update on that effort in the coming weeks. Today we highlight another strategy being organized by one of our co signing organizations, Families for Treatment of Serious Mental Illness, a new non-profit. This new organization is on a journey to create change for the 4% from outside of the NAMI organization. They are no longer waiting for NAMI to return to their original mission. They are on their own mission which is “…. to advocate at the federal, state, and local level for treatment, programs, services, housing, and care for those with serious mental illness, and to provide support and education programs to families and caregivers." To build momentum and membership, Families for Treatment of Serious Mental Illness (TreatSMI), friends and fellow advocates of those suffering from serious mental illnesses will be marching in our Nation and State Capitals demanding the right to treatment BEFORE tragedy, a hospital bed instead of jail or homelessness, housing, assisted outpatient treatment for our loved ones suffering from anosognosia, civil commitment laws that include grave disability and a need for treatment, and an end to the criminalization of serious mental illness. They intend to replace stigma with honor, silence with our voices, despair with hope, shame with respect, and ignorance with science so that 2017 may be the year when we finally get treatment before tragedy! They are currently seeking volunteers to organize their marches across the country. Please see their event page at https://www.facebook.com/events/428731540804913/ In a recent post on their Facebook Page the President of Families for Treatment of Serious Mental Illness described the purpose of the march as follows: FAMILIES FOR TREATMENT OF SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS·THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2017 “My name is Jeanne Gore and I am the President of Families for Treatment of Serious Mental Illness, or TreatSMI for short. More importantly, I am a Mom whose son has been hospitalized 42 times in the last 14 years. He has been beaten by 7 police officers in Burlington, Vt, homeless, missing, jailed, and on and on... The Shattering Silence March will be the first step in TreatSMI’s efforts to truly bring treatment before tragedy for all who suffer from a serious brain disease. Because our organization is in it’s infancy, this must be a grassroots effort that begins from the ground up. I really believe that, with hard work and persistence, we can pull this off. I have been researching how the “nasty women” organized the woman’s march and they began exactly as we are, with one Facebook page event. There are a number of tasks that must be completed early on if we are to be successful. I am going to list them here and, if you feel moved to volunteer to complete one of them, please email me at TreatSMI@gmail.com to let me know. Keep in mind that if you have a friend or friends who would like to tackle a task with you, you can do it together. Here they are: 1. Organize the marches by state - Recruit people from each state willing to create a Facebook event on their own Facebook page mirroring ours exactly, using Families for Treatment of Serious Mental Illness’ cover photo, and, using their state capital as the location for the event. Whomever you recruit, it’s very important to inform them that, before they create an event to post, they must contact their state’s capital to inform them of the march and obtain any permits required for the march. Once the event page is up, they will need to invite people to the event and share, tweet, etc. Whoever accepts this task must keep records of who is organizing by state (their name and email address so I can keep them in the loop) and send me the updated list weekly so that we will be able to gauge how we are doing and know which states we still haven’t reached. 2. Make flyers that can be customized by state capitals. It’s very important that we only use TreatSMI’s cover photo when making flyers so that we create a loud, unified voice just as the nasty women did. I can provide the cover photo and our logo. 3. Brainstorm ideas for whom we can invite to speak at our march in DC and state capitals. Judge Steve Leifman, John Snook, Rep. Tim Murphy and Dj Jaffe immediately come to mind for the march in DC. How about someone famous who suffers from a serious mental illness or has a family member who does. This will also be a question to ask people who agree to organize marches in their own states. 4. Contact the news media - press releases, journalists, TV Stations, etc... 5. Contact professional organizations to invite and help us to promote the march - Police Associations, Psychiatric Associations, Nursing Associations, Social Workers, Hospitals, etc.... 6. Brainstorm ideas with me for how we can clearly identify ourselves at the march the way they did in the woman’s march. They wore pink hats. I have thought of the possibility of all of us wearing orange to signify the orange jump suits our children must wear in prison. We could make tee shirts available to order online that would have statements like, “A Bed Instead of Jail”, “Stop the Criminalization of Mental Illness”, “Treatment BEFORE Tragedy”, etc... on the front and TreatSMI’s cover photo on the back.” Please consider joining one of the organizing meetings listed on their Facebook page if you are interested in supporting the #ShatteringSilence revolution and TreatSMI’s effort to get real, get radical and get results. Thank you!