Blog articles from NAMI Santa Clara County
Spirituality can be a bridge between mental illness and science without proselytizing. This is the role of NAMI FaithNet. Cindy McCalmont, an ordained United Methodist Minister for 15 years, is part of the NAMI Santa Clara County leadership team for FaithNet. She notes that FaithNet is not a religious network. The focus is to assist…
The holidays can be a joy-filled season, but they can also be stressful and especially challenging for those impacted by mental illness. A NAMI study showed that 64% of people with mental illness report holidays make their conditions worse. “For many people the holiday season is not always the most wonderful time of the year,” said…
Information provides empowerment. Empathy brings solace, and out of chaos comes clarity. The NAMI Helpline has the people and tools to shepherd a caller through each one of these critical moments. Oftentimes, the need can be all three at once. Kathy Forward, former executive director of NAMI Santa Clara County, said, “The Helpline is the…
The path to NAMI is as diverse as the people who find it. The individual may be a consumer, a parent, sibling, spouse or friend. The need may be due to a horrific event like suicide, being jailed, failed hospitalizations or the shutdown of a board and care facility. All these paths have one common…
Recently, at a virtual NAMIFaithNet Luncheon, a faith leader of a nearby parish, asked, “What can you do when the person you love has mental illness and refuses treatment?” Edmund Ibarra, a FaithNet staff person and member of St. Martin of Tours Parish recommended the anguished parent read, I’m Not Sick. I Don’t Need Help!…
“On Hearing Voices” Reverend Cindy McCalmont Willow Glen United Methodist Church May 5, 2019 Acts 9:1-20 Revelation 5:11-14 Twenty-nine years ago, I heard a voice. I was a seminary student at the time, praying one morning in Duke Chapel when the voice said: These hands can heal. The voice was so real that my eyes…