Basics
Family-to-Family
Provider Program
Peer-to-Peer
Basics
NAMI Basics is an education program for parents and other caregivers of children and adolescents living with mental illness. The Course is taught by trained teachers who are the parent or caregivers of individuals who developed the symptoms of mental illness prior to the age of 13 years.
The course consists of six classes, each lasting 2-1/2 hours. Classes may be offered weekly for six consecutive weeks, or may be offered twice per week for three weeks to accommodate the hectic schedules of parents.
“This is a great resource for parents. There is nothing else out there for us. Please keep this class going.” — Basics graduate
Paid for by the Iowa Department of Human Services through its contract with
Magellan Health Services for Iowa Plan for Behavioral Health Medicaid Community Reinvestment funding.
Click here for an application.
Family-to-Family
Family-to-Family is a free twelve-week course specifically for family members and significant others of persons with severe and persistent mental illnesses. Trained NAMI IOWA volunteer family members teach each two-and-one-half-hour session.
Although the course is not diagnosis-specific, it covers information about schizophrenia, the mood disorders (bipolar disorder and major depression), panic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. The curriculum, written by an experienced family member who is a mental health professional, is regularly updated.
The curriculum includes: symptoms and treatments of mental illnesses, brain biology, medications, recovery and rehabilitation. Coping skills, self-care, communication skills, problem-solving and advocacy strategies are also vital elements.
Family members achieve greater knowledge, self-efficacy, improved well-being, empowerment, and self-esteem.
“The Family-to-Family course is truly life-changing. I gained information, insight and understanding. I only wish I had had this class twenty years ago!”— Family-to-Family graduate
Click here to download an application to attend a F2F course.
Paid for by the Iowa Department of Human Services through its contract with
Magellan Health Services for Iowa Plan for Behavioral Health Medicaid Community Reinvestment funding.
Provider Program
Provider Program is a ten-week course for mental health professionals of public and private agencies who work directly with individuals suffering from severe and persistent brain disorders. Trained NAMI IOWA volunteer family members, consumers and mental health professionals teach as a team each three-hour session.
The course reflects a new knowledge base – the “lived experiences” of coping with a brain disorder or caring for someone who struggles with this life-long challenge.
The course helps providers realize the hardships that families and consumers endure and appreciate the courage and persistence it takes to find ways to reconstruct lives which must be lived, through no fault of the consumer or family. It adds a means of teaching the emotional aspects and practical consequences of these illnesses to the academic medical information in the course.
There is a fee for this training.
“I can’t say enough about the Provider Education program. When I went through the course, I kept thinking ‘what a wonderful experience that all our staff need to have.’” – Provider graduate
Peer-to-Peer
Peer-to-Peer is a free nine-week course for individuals with severe brain disorders. Each two-hour session is taught by a NAMI IOWA team of three trained “mentors” who are personally experienced at living well with mental illness.
Participants come away from the course with a binder of hand-out materials, as well as other tangible resources such as: an advance directive; a “relapse prevention plan” to help identify feelings, thoughts, behaviors or events that may warn of impending relapse; information on how to organize for intervention; mindfulness exercises to help focus and calm thinking; and survival skills for working with providers and the general public.
Class topics include: stigma and discrimination, relapse prevention planning, story telling, language, emotions, addictions, spirituality, medication, coping strategies, decision making, relationships, empowerment and advocacy.
“It was very encouraging, helpful, and empowering.” — Peer-to-Peer graduate
Peer-to-Peer Mentors Needed – Click Here for application
Click here to download the Class Application
Paid for by the Iowa Department of Human Services through its contract with Magellan Health Services for Iowa Plan for Behavioral Health Medicaid Community Reinvestment funding.
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