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Outreach effort tackles issues of mental illness

Blade (Toledo, OH) - 9/17/2014

Sept. 17--Families of people struggling with mental health issues or suffering from drug or alcohol dependency will have a new way to find out how to get help starting this Thursday.

The new outreach effort is being called Third Thursday because on that day, each month, several mental health and drug addiction agencies will come together from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the classroom center at the University of Toledo Scott Park Campus.

The free event, the Gateway to Wellness and Recovery, will continue through June.

"We will have resources available to family and individuals to divert them from ending up in jail or in the courts," said Sarah Smitley, family navigator for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Ms. Smitley said the agency is hoping to reach people who don't know where to find help for their loved one or child, or have been too ashamed to seek help.

One in four families in the United States has someone with a mental health challenge and 22 percent of adults in Lucas County have been diagnosed with depression, but the stigma around mental health problems prevents people from seeking help, said NAMI executive director Robin L. Isenberg.

"People and their families keep it quiet, they don't want to talk about it. They tell their friends a lot of things but they don't tell their friends their adult child has schizophrenia. They are not looking at it as a physical ailment. It is treatable," Ms Smitley said.

This Thursday there will be representatives from Harbor, New Concepts, The Lucas County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, the Thomas M. Wernert Center, Unison Behavioral Health Group, and A Renewed Mind Behavioral Health.

"There will be people at the tables so families can ask questions and get answers. It won't just be a marketing person sitting there," Ms. Smitley said.

The information tables will be located just outside the lecture hall and beginning at 6:30 p.m. there will be a speaker addressing a different mental health topic each month.

For the kickoff event this week, the presentation in the lecture hall will focus on suicide prevention.

The speakers will address the risk factors and warning signs for suicide, as well as how to help someone who may be suicidal, said Ms. Isenberg. She will lead the discussion along with a representative for the Lucas County Suicide Prevention Coalition.

In 2013 there were 60 suicides in Lucas County. Some of the warning signs that a person is considering taking his or her life are a loss of interest in activities they normally do, a change in sleep habits, performing poorly at work or in school, giving away a prized possession, and withdrawing from family and friends, Ms. Isenberg said.

She said families seeking more information on mental health issues can also download a new smart phone application that was developed by NAMI by searching for RUOK followed by LCSP in their phones' application site. In addition to providing information, the free phone app also automatically pulls up a list of local mental health agency emergency phone numbers, she said.

Contact Marlene Harris-Taylor at mtaylor@theblade.com or 419-724-6091.

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