Blog articles from NAMI Santa Clara County
By Moryt Milo For parents whose children have mental health conditions, the question of who cares for them once they are gone is ever present. Mark Gilfix, a partner at Gilfix & La Poll Associates and an expert in special needs planning, said this fear can be abated with the right tools. Once established, these…
By Moryt Milo Paraag Marathe, President of 49ers Enterprises and Executive Vice President of Football Operations, negotiates football contracts, maintains a competitive salary cap for the organization, and was charged with figuring out where to put a new football stadium. But when it came to his sister’s battle with mental illness, he was confronted with…
By Moryt Milo For close to 20 years, California’s Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) has been a lifeline for a number of behavioral health care programs not covered by Medi-Cal. Come March 2024, some of that funding could shift dramatically if voters approve the referendum on the ballot. Proposition 1, as it will be known,…
By Moryt Milo On the last day of July, the weather was hot and the energy was electric as mental health advocates rallied in front of Good Samaritan Hospital to protest the closure of 18 inpatient psychiatric beds at Mission Oaks Hospital in Los Gatos. Mission Oaks, part of San Jose-based Good Samaritan Hospital, is…
By Moryt Milo California State Sen. Susan Eggman has authored a bill, SB 43, that would revise the language in the Lanterman Petris Short (LPS) Conservatorship law. The 56-year-old law’s definition of “gravely disabled” is too subjective many families argue, and they hope the bill will reach Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. Under current law, individuals…
By Moryt Milo Sometimes nonprofits know when a merger is a flawless fit. It’s rare, but in the case of Momentum for Health and Parisi House on the Hill, the decision had no doubters. The timing was right and the leaders of each organization had been working together for years. Parisi House Executive Director Pat…
By Moryt Milo For years, Dr. Po Wang has studied and treated individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a brain disease that causes severe mood swings and significantly impacts a person’s ability to function. The Stanford psychiatrist, who collaborated with Dr. Terence Ketter in establishing the Stanford Bipolar Disorders Clinic, said although the disease is defined…
By Moryt Milo For individuals living with mental illness, proper treatment and safe housing top the list. The right treatment can enable some individuals with mental illness to live independently. But finding affordable housing on a fixed income in the Bay Area is challenging. The county is trying to change that for low-income individuals and…
By Moryt Milo Ken Duckworth knew NAMI needed a book driven by individuals with lived experience, not your standard doctor-patient saga. He sensed what would resonate with the readers since he too had mental illness in his family, having grown up watching his father suffer from severe mood swings caused by bipolar disorder. As the…
By Moryt Milo At a holiday party in December 2014, Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian was pulled aside by a friend and asked a very simple question: Why are there no inpatient psychiatric beds for children and adolescents in mental health crisis in Santa Clara County? Even though Simitian had been serving in public…