I'm honored to have interviewed Clarence Jordan, a NAMI board member who serves on their membership and diversity committee. Clarence is the manager of consumer recovery services for Magellan Health Services.
CB: Tell us a little about the work you do with NAMI.
CJ: In regards to my role as a board member, it's a wonderful opportunity to look at our organization and make decisions not only important to our own financial well-being as an organization but also with regards to our mission: first and foremost improving the lives of individuals affected with these illnesses. It's our uppermost reason for being. As a board member, I have, we all have, a real opportunity to affect the kinds of policy positions that our organization works on, as well as provide meaningful feedback to state agencies who engage in providing direct services to members. In terms of being a board member, I've told someone I have the best of both worlds-where my vocation is my avocation. I certainly mean that. I'm vested in the notion of recovery and consumer rights and that's where I feel my purpose in life to be.
CB: You're a member of the planning committee which focuses on membership and diversity. What are some of NAMI's goals in the coming years?
CJ: One important goal we're looking at and strategizing in terms of how to reach it is to make NAMI a household word, and in so doing become the nation's largest consumer organization. That is attainable through our very mission: we stand for and promote consumer rights, wellness and well-being. The foundation is there. We just have to find strategies that will get us there. That's the job I see of the membership committee: to diversify our membership and in so doing reach populations and demographic groups that have not been served. And there are multiple ways of going about that, numerous strategies of outreach to various groups and organizations of individuals in various demographic groups. The most important effort of all that we're involved in is the notion of cultural competency. It's not enough just to increase numbers of a particular demographic group. The goal is to have NAMI as a place where individuals of those demographic groups are able to contribute and feel comfortable and receive the same benefits as any members in our organization.
CB: Could you talk about cultural competency and what that encompasses?
CJ: I think you and I understand there is a culture of illness that exists. This culture of illness for example is one that permeates our thinking and our being, the way we see the world. It's the way we have internalized and interpreted the things in our environment around us. When we understand and recognize the oftentimes internalized negative images of who we are as individuals affected by mental illness, we can move beyond that. A much clearer application of cultural competency and I suspect one we'll get into later is the military. It is a culture of its own and if you understand its beliefs, values and principles, then being able to provide services to individuals and families who are part of that particular group would certainly be more possible by understanding that culture.
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