We offer educational classes for professionals who work directly with people experiencing severe and persistent mental illness.
What is NAMI Provider Education?
NAMI Provider is an evidence-based staff development program for healthcare providers, administrative staff, operational staff, case managers, peer support specialist, students, trainees, and interns (and others) working directly with people affected by mental health challenges and their families/caretakers. It is a course that equips participants with a deeper understanding of mental illness and the confidence to serve individuals and families/caretakers in a collaborative manner.
NAMI Provider is offered in a five-session course or a four-hour introductory seminar. This unique program is led by an individual living with mental health challenges, a family member, and a mental health professional. The presenters share their personal, intimate perspectives on their treatment experiences and offer attendees the tools needed to combine the medical and recovery models of care so the client can receive the best possible care.
This course supports providers in realizing the hardships faced by people living with mental health challenges and their families/caretakers. Through this course participants will ideally be able to recognize and appreciate the courage and persistence it takes to deal with mental health challenges.
How is the Provider Education course unique?
NAMI Provider emphasizes the involvement of people living with mental health challenges and their families as faculty in provider staff training. The teaching team consists of three to five people:
- One or two people living with mental health challenges who are knowledgeable about their own mental illnesses and are dedicated to their process of recovery;
- One or two family members of people living with mental health challenges; and
- A mental health professional who is also a family member or someone living with mental health challenges.
This course showcases the “lived experiences” of people living with mental health challenges or caring for someone who lives with a mental health challenge. Including this deeply personal perspective creates an appreciable difference in the program’s content. It adds a means of teaching the emotional aspects as well as the practical consequences of mental illnesses along with the academic medical information in the course.
Click here to see the flyer for the course.
Crisis Intervention Training
The Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) program is a community partnership between law enforcement, first responders, and Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS). Introduced in 2005, San Mateo County’s CIT program is part of a continuum of crisis services which aim to safely provide the best support possible to those in a behavioral health crisis. One of the main goals of CIT is to support law enforcement and other first responders in learning how to safely de-escalate a situation where a mental health crisis is occurring. CIT enhances needed skills to support, and interact with, individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis due to evidence of mental illness or substance use, intellectual disabilities, and other mental or behavioral challenges.
CIT proved to be very helpful to first responders and recently has become mandatory for all law enforcement officers in California. The 40-hour CIT programs are comprised of classroom lectures on topics such as mental illness and substance use (and the relationship between the two), youth concerns/interventions, post-traumatic stress disorder, veteran’s issues, trauma, suicidality, implicit bias, intellectual disabilities, Alzheimer’s and dementia, conservatorship, legal issues, writing 5150s, self-care, and county resources – including the use of the San Mateo County Mental Health Assessment and Referral Team (SMART) and Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) along with other crisis response supports. During some of these trainings speakers share their stories about living with mental health and/or substance use challenges; family members also share what it is like for them to support their loved ones facing these challenges.
For information about how to enroll in CIT, contact your law enforcement/first responder supervisor.
For information about how to bring NAMI SMC to your CIT training, contact nami@namisanmateo.org.
Sharing Your Story with Law Enforcement (SYSLE)
NAMI SMC is excited to announce that we are now offering Sharing Your Story with Law Enforcement (SYSLE) presentations to first responders (e.g., law enforcement, EMTs, dispatchers, and others). SYSLE trained presenters share their stories with first responders with the intention of expanding understanding about mental health, mental illness, and everything in between
SYSLE presentation goals include:
- Providing education about mental illness so first responders can better support people living with mental health challenges
- Enhancing empathy between first responders and people in the community that live with mental health challenges, including family members and caregivers
- Improving crisis response by providing education, support, and real human stories behind mental health challenges
We can tailor this presentation to meet the needs of your organization; just let us know what you are looking for.
If you would like to bring a SYSLE presentation to your organization, including CIT trainings, please contact nami@namisanmateo.org.
Click here to see the flyer for the course.