​Betty Whiton stopped by to talk about NAMI and the services they offer. You can email Betty here. Also check out the Albuquerque NAMI affiliate here.
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The National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI for short, is the United States largest and oldest grassroots non-profit on mental health advocacy. They also are one of the only services that provide training and help to family members of people living with mental illness.
 
When the first Crisis Intervention Team was being created in Memphis, NAMI played a huge role in making it a community-based program.  When looking at starting or enhancing a CIT program making sure you have NAMI or your local mental health advocacy group involved is a must.
 
NAMI’s website also host amazing information on behavioral health disorders and ways to help someone in need. There information is easy to read and easy to access making it great material to use in training or to hand out to families in need.
 
So what are some of their programs? Well here are a few:

• National Conference
• Family Support Groups
• WRAP- Wellness Recovery Action Plan
• In Our Own Voice
• Family to Family
• Breaking the Silence

 
Check out more on NAMI here.

Their hotline number is 1-800-950-NAMI

​Today Dr. Duhigg spoke about medication used in the treatment of mental illness. Please take a look at the attachments to find easy to use cheat sheets on psychotropic medications and what they are typically described for. This can help you when you are out on a call and trying to get an assessment of the person you are out with. Never be afraid to ask someone why they take their medications, many medications are used for a variety of illness. 

​Recently in a meeting Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was requested from Las Cruces Police Department. I am attaching LCPD policy and the draft policy for the Albuquerque Police Department. I am working on collecting policies from all agencies that have them and creating a page to list them. If you are working on a policy here are two to start with. If you would like to contribute your agency's police please email it to me here.