I love volunteering! It gives me a sense of purpose, something to do, and I really feel like I make a difference in other people's lives.
I began volunteering with NAMI Baltimore (National Alliance on Mental Illness) in August of 2013 and it had been crucial to my on-going recovery with mental illness. One day I told my wife that I wanted to do something other than be in this house, and I had been doing better with my illnesses. I told her that I wanted to call NAMI to see about volunteering, and I was in training to be an In Our Own Voice presenter by the end of that month!
Being an IOOV presenter means that, along with a co-presenter, I share my story of living well with mental illness. During each presentation, we show a special DVD about people living well with their illnesses, and teach the audience about NAMI. The presentations are fun, and I love interacting with the people I present to. Since I've been doing these presentations for two and a half years, I have presented in a lot of places. Some of my audience members include police officers, psychology, nursing, and pharmacy students, nursing instructors, and patients in psychiatric hospitals, just to name a few. People ask great questions, and I hope they learn a lot too. The main thing I really want my audience to get out of a presentation is that there is hope that anyone can live well with any mental illness!
Another avenue of volunteering I do is being a co-facilitator of NAMI Connections support groups. I just recently completely my training and haven't yet co-facilitated, but I will get the opportunity to soon. The Connections support groups are based on a NAMI model and are run by two people who are living well with mental illness.
I am also certified to be a Peer Mentor with NAMI Baltimore. NAMI has a class called Peer-to-Peer that is ten weeks and it is where two people who are living well teach others who have mental illness about their illnesses, and how to live well with them. I have not yet taught this class, either, but I am hoping that I will be scheduled to in the Fall.
Volunteering with NAMI has taught me that there are all kinds of people in the world, some with mental illness, and some not. I want to learn how to effectively communicate my story so that it will give others hope, and so that people who don't have mental illness will learn how to help those that do. I want to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness, and by sharing with others, I think I am helping with that.
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