10 Tips for Reducing Stress

The director of our division of MHA is a fantastic person facilitating support groups for consumers w/depression, bipolar, anxiety & schizophrenia.  She also arranges educational programs at the library for the community & arranges informal meetings at a local coffee shop for consumers to enjoy socializing.  She helps us get grants to attend conferences & brings in programs like WRAP, financial planning & budget classes & stress-reduction.

She invites anyone interested in mental health in the community (school counselors, therapists, doctors, consumers, NAMI & DBSA members, pastors, jail personnel, shelter employees for battered women or the homeless, alcohol/substance abuse treatment facilities, etc.) to come to quarterly lunch-time programs with various speakers ranging from the newest info. about psychiatric medications, the treatments of various mental disorders, impoving communication between mental health providers and the client's family (if the client has given permission), understanding HIPPA, the role of spirituality & the services churches & other religious organizations can provide, etc.

She leads support groups in the jails for the men & women there (separately).  She is a trained therapist.

 MHA has been an amazing resource for me & the other consumers in our community & this program looks excellant, too.

She is such a postitive force in our community that I wrote an article about her for the local paper & it was published under the title "Neighbors Making an Impact."