Dear Supporters, The Shattering Silence campaign started with this petition to Mary Giliberti and the current NAMI Board of Directors. A review of the comments posted to the petition from people all across the country clearly indicates the need for a new direction and the need for NAMI National to refocus its efforts on the 4% living with serious mental illnesses. We have posted updates offering different suggestions for affecting change both inside and outside of NAMI. This update will focus on efforts to change the NAMI Board of Directors during the current 2017-2018 Election. Voting will begin soon and continue up until the NAMI National Convention. The voting process is described here: https://www.nami.org/Extranet/NAMI-Board-of-Directors/Voting-Elections/Voting-at-NAMI This process is heavily determined by the local affiliates so I urge all signers of the petition (many current NAMI members) to make your voices heard at the local and state level of NAMI. I strongly support the “Focus on Serious Mental Illness” ticket made up of Lauren Rettagliata, Dj Jaffe, Mary Zdanowitz and Robert Laitman, M.D. Below are excerpts from their candidate statements: Lauren Rettagliata “NAMI needs to join with advocates who have felt abandoned by the de-emphasis on serious mental illness. I have worked with both my local NAMI and these advocates to bring a voice to the intense pain endured by those who have not received treatment. We have testified before state legislative committees and attended state capitol rallies. We have reminded both our state officials and legislators that the state funding set aside for those with a serious mental illness received an “F” from our State Auditor. At every opportunity we have used stories of our loved ones to gather the public support that was needed to change the status quo. Data is important, but real life stories form a movement.” - See more at https://www.nami.org/Extranet/NAMI-Board-of-Directors/Voting-Elections/2017-NAMI-Elections/Meet-the-2017-Candidates/Lauren-Rettagliata#sthash.IrtB5Edw.dpuf Dj Jaffe “Homelessness, arrest, violence, incarceration, hospitalization and suicide are going up. By focusing on seriously mentally ill adults, we can bring them down. We want NAMI to focus on seriously ill adults by supporting more hospital beds, group homes, and clubhouses; expanding use of Assisted Outpatient Treatment; and humanizing commitment laws. We’ll oppose anti-psychiatry, Bazelon and Disability Rights lawyers and support the medical model. That will stop criminalization of our loved ones. Finally, we recognize that fighting stigma is not as important as fighting laws and policies that deny our family members care.” - See more at https://www.nami.org/Extranet/NAMI-Board-of-Directors/Voting-Elections/2017-NAMI-Elections/Meet-the-2017-Candidates/D-J-Jaffe#sthash.aluq6ni5.dpuf Mary Zdanowicz “My brother and sister were diagnosed with schizophrenia twenty-five years ago. Both are gravely disabled and need me as their guardian, advocate and friend. The services they need, such as 24-hour residences and continuing care hospitals, are disappearing. I worry about what will happen to them when I am gone.” - See more at https://www.nami.org/Extranet/NAMI-Board-of-Directors/Voting-Elections/2017-NAMI-Elections/Meet-the-2017-Candidates/Mary-Zdanowicz#sthash.NHUjxkh2.dpuf Robert S. Laitman, MD “NAMI needs to stay focused on its true core mission and beliefs. We are an organization that needs to be honest. We must admit that violence especially against family members is dramatically more common in untreated psychotic individuals. We need to admit that despite our best efforts some of our loved ones may not recover. These people need our continued active support in a therapeutic environment. These people should never be warehoused in institutions or worse yet allowed to die pitiful deaths on the street or be trans- institutionalized somewhere in the criminal justice system. We need to not let more Psychiatric hospital beds disappear and if we are going to treat these people in the community we need funding for truly supported housing and wrap around services. The way we treat the 4% (Persistent Severe Mental Illness) has become a National Shame. We need to be loud and boisterous. We need to treat this group with the most effective medicines and modalities presently available and in that 50% without awareness of illness we need laws that allow us to rescue them. Yes they are suffering and we must admit this.” - See more at https://www.nami.org/Extranet/NAMI-Board-of-Directors/Voting-Elections/2017-NAMI-Elections/Meet-the-2017-Candidates/Robert-S-Laitman-M-D#sthash.FU9hL2bi.dpuf Additionally, I strongly support the following candidate who is not on the “Focus on SMI” ticket: Frankie Berger “Immediately and proactively, NAMI should seek to identify member families of adult children with SMI who are feeling marginalized and work in partnership to develop a plan of engagement. These are some of the most powerful voices, and their passion can be harnessed for change. NAMI should train them with advocacy tools and a social media platform, work with them to create a niche liaison group to NAMI of SMI families, provide them the resources and time to accomplish this, and ensure an open line of communication with leadership.” - See more at https://www.nami.org/Extranet/NAMI-Board-of-Directors/Voting-Elections/2017-NAMI-Elections/Meet-the-2017-Candidates/Frankie-Berger#sthash.NZkIzpl4.dpuf These candidates cannot personally lobby for votes so they need every single person who signed this petition to contact their local and state chapters and urge support for change and vote for these candidates. Each of these candidates possesses the brave, bold and courageous leadership qualities that NAMI needs to spark systemic changes. They each speak to my heart and passion and I am grateful for their willingness to work within the NAMI organization to challenge the status quo. Pete Earley discussed these candidates and described the tension that exists within NAMI in his latest blog; http://www.peteearley.com/2017/05/18/a-coup-detat-at-nami-four-board-candidates-running-on-smi-platform/ Tension makes some people uncomfortable. But, I think we all need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I wrote about tension in this 2009 blog post, http://safetynethospital.blogspot.com/2011/01/mothers-lessons-reflections-from-teresa.html. In this piece, I discuss the difference between positive and negative tension and shared one of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr’s. Letter from a Birmingham Jail. That letter is a brilliant piece about the importance of confrontation. The letter discusses King’s disappointment in the response from the white moderates to his direct-action program. He stated that the “….white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice…” King continued, "Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.” We must embrace the tension within NAMI and unite on a direct-action program for justice for the 4%. We all need to get real together and bring leadership change to NAMI now.