NAMI to re-launch local support group

The National Alliance of Mental Illness of Jasper County is taking on a new name but its presence will remain in the community with a new monthly support group.

NAMI of Jasper County will be merging with NAMI of Central Iowa on Friday, and the organization’s leaders felt it was important people in the county continue to receive proper mental health services.

The peer-led support group is open to the public. The first meeting will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 21. The support group will then meet at 7 p.m. the third Thursday of every month at Skiff Medical Center in the in-service room.

NAMI of Jasper County President Bill Ehler said the support group is for adult family members, caregivers and loved ones of individuals living with mental illness.

“It made sense that we merge and become NAMI of Central Iowa because it’s in our mental health region,” Ehler said. “We will continue to have some control over our own funds and we will just be a line item on their budget.”

Ehler said the family support group will be led by three facilitators, Ehler, Peg Ehler and Emily Exley-Berry.

“We all have members in our family with mental illness and that’s one of the key things since it’s a peer driven group,” Bill Ehler said. “We have guidelines at these meetings and the first thing we do is give everyone an opportunity to talk.”

Ehler said each person will get a minute and a half to speak with a sand timer. If there is someone who doesn’t want to talk, then they can pass the timer on to someone else, according to Ehler.

“We feel there has been a lot of talk and people want to have a support group, and we didn’t know what that would look like, and then we found out about this training,” Ehler said. “We had a full two days of training with role playing.”

Ehler said they will lead as facilitators and not therapists.

“The whole point is to get feedback from others in the group — we are all there to help,” Ehler said. “We don’t want to say we can fix their problem but we can guide them to the proper service.”

Ehler said he and his wife joined the organization six or seven years ago when their daughter was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

“There is a definite need out there and we are trying to get rid of that stigma, too,” Ehler said. “Too many people don’t know what stigma is and they say, ‘you are just crazy.’”

Ehler said residents of Jasper County will participate in the NAMI Walk in Johnston at 10 a.m. Sept. 30. The Jasper County Walk Stars will walk at Terra Lake Park at 6300 Pioneer Parkway. Other upcoming programs Ehler hopes to incorporate is NAMI Connections, which is a support group where a person with a mental illness leads a group of others with mental illness.

Ehler also hopes to bring the program, Ending the Silence, to school districts in the county.

“Next year, we are hoping by 2018, we will be able to offer it here in Jasper County,” Ehler said. “It is about a 90-minute presentation with a high school age person who talks about their own mental illness.”

Ehler said he believes there are many people who aren’t aware of their own mental illness.

“We were in the same boat at one point with our daughter,” Ehler said. “Too many people go through school and they might have a mental illness that’s never caught.”

Local board members of NAMI of Central Iowa will continue to meet at 6:30 p.m. every third Monday of the month.

Contact Kayla Singletary at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or ksingletary@newtondailynews.com