NAMI Michigan NAMIWALK

Today I took the Silverwing to the NAMI Michigan NAMIWALK on Belle Isle. It was a great walk. There were lots of people there. I couldn't walk today as I have broken a bone in my foot so my ability to stand, much less walk is limited.

What I saw was many people walking, talking and having a great time. People with a mental illness, people who had family members who have a mental illness, friends of people who have a mental illness. There are more families involved now, I mean the ones with young kids. For a long, long time it always seemed to me that the people with an illness were around; sometimes they had parents and sometimes they didn't.

But now, there are families with younger kids involved. I am so glad that I have grandkids. (See grandkids to the left; Can't you just feel the love?) They would have been there today, but the truck was broken.

I would love to tell you that my meds changed everything, but what made the biggest change for me was the support that I got from people and for me, many of the people who did the supporting were NAMI members (both family and consumer members; I always get asked.) And yes, I am often a fan of NAMI Michigan. We don't always agree, but they are a major reason I am well. Of course they are also a major reason that I have learned to become a great advocate.

Anyway, back to the NAMIWALK stuff. I liked being able to hear the Recovery Band. There were other great singers, a lot of peer support specialists, USPRA Clubhouse members, JIMHO Drop-In Center members, and great people.

What I didn't like to hear (but did at the same time) was that there was a group there who were standing up and telling people that it is wrong for kids who have a mental illness to be in jail and prison because they are usually taken off their meds and isolated as they are kept away from the general prison population. How many times are family members encouraged to get tough on their ill family member. How many times doesn't that work well? NAMI Basics is coming into state this weekend.

The teams of walkers just keeps growing and growing. This is one of the ways that NAMI Michigan gets it's funding for the year so it can keep doing the education programs, supporting the Connection programs and all that other great stuff.

I'll steer you towards the pics as soon as I hear they are up.

Marty
Recovery That Rocks

May 8, 2007 Omaha, Packing Problems due to mornings

May 8 07

Today I am going to present at the Allegant Hospital in Omaha. I get up nervous and uptight. It is hard to get up, pack my stuff on the bike, strap it all down, save out what I need for a presentation and then get to the place thirty minutes ahead of time to set up.

I was supposed to meet people for breakfast, I really, really wanted to go, but wasn’t able to get moving.

It is hard, really hard for me to pack and move before ten in the morning. For most of my life, I have been the person who only wakes up around 10AM. I am fully functioning around 10:20.

Here, the presentation is supposed to start at 10AM.

I find the hospital around 9:30, which makes me uptight. The setup is making me nervous. I find the education wing and walk in. I don’t see anyone or anything familiar. I do see other people seeking the same place I am.

I ask a lady for directions, a house phone, a receptionist. She asks me where I need to go. I told her that I didn’t know. She was a total asshole. She said, if you don’t know where you are to go, then I can’t help you (yep, you know the voice and tone) and ignored me when I asked where a receptionist or a house phone might be.

I walk back outside and think about my surroundings and feel the minutes ticking away. I don’t feel good about the part that they can’t start without me.

I see a sign for valet service and realize that would mean a main entrance. I head over to it and ask the receptionist. She says that she doesn’t know where the meeting is being held. As I am breathing deep and trying to call Ken again, another lady says, “I know where you need to get to” and points out the way when she realizes that the name of the building means nothing to me. It is across the road.

I see a trail of people starting over walking, but I decide to hop back on my bike and take it over. When I do head over with my bike, people realize that I am the speaker and that I have been following their van for quite a while.

I am relieved to find the room and get set up. The people seemed to enjoy my presentation. I have started telling part of my story that often doesn’t get told and use it as examples when I present. The presentation is working its way out. I like it and agree to send handouts to people at the end of the Nebraska presentations.

Some NAMI people and I share lunch together. It is a beautiful day to ride my Vulcan. I kick back, enjoying the ride to Norfolk, which is said Norfork. (Long sad story about a government clerk that thought the people who sent in the application had to be mistaken)

I find the hotel around 6:15. It is a Holiday Inn Express. The desk clerk says “We have free beer and free hors derves until 7PM. It’s amazing. Unpacking my Vulcan suddenly got a whole lot easier. LOL

There’s a washing machine near my room. Good, I can present the next day with no bug guts on my clothes. Grin.

Happy Trails, Marty

Saturday January 26 2007

I can't sleep in as I my mind is occupied with what I need to have happen in the In Our Own Voice Training. I kind of miss the training notebook that I usually use as I have taken notes in every training that I have done.

Comments other people have made that has and hasn't worked when they were presenters. Comments that offended people. Misspellings and what have now become typos. All that stuff.

I look at the agenda and realize that it has changed once again since I did a training. And I have to wonder why there aren't trainers calls anymore where these things are discussed. My training style is a little different from some others but the results speak for themselves.

My mind runs through the needs that I have heard and I think about how we need to come up with presenters who can change what presenter they are on the run, that people are looking for partners or are pairing up with people who went through the previous training so things need to match up well with what was done in the past.

I start to define how I need the training to look and what will be important to help people thoroughly understand, how to make sure people know that the conversation that occurs can be just as important if not more important than the presentations and how to steer the conversations that can take place by the questions you ask as the second person.

And I plan out what and how things will happen. Inch by inch, minute by minute.

Later--things went well today. I had a great time. This is an awesome group of people. I always enjoy the people that I meet when I am doing a training.

I miss my vulcan. It has stopped raining and I feel a need to ride. Instead I check out the prices of motorcycle trailers. Somehow it is just not the same thing.

Happy trails, Marty