NAMI Friends and Family, I can hardly believe I'm writing this for my last newsletter as the Executive Director at NAMI Seattle. 5 years has flown by! We really kicked some butt this year and I feel so fortunate to close this chapter on a high note....
[button size='medium' style='' text='Give to NAMI Seattle' icon='fa-align-center' icon_color='' link='https://secure.everyaction.com/DR1ZoZ8tj0-6xw-r6Tvf0A2' target='_self' color='' hover_color='' border_color='' hover_border_color='' background_color='' hover_background_color='#0095b3' font_style='normal' font_weight='700' text_align='center' margin=''] Hey NAMI Family. It's Ashley. I’m ready to talk. For real. It’s time. Every year around this time, we tell stories of recovery to inspire you and...
As a society, we are on the brink of an epidemic. The number of people in the U.S. who admit to being lonely is at 40% - double the reported numbers from the 1980s. There is a growing body of literature on loneliness and mental...
In my previous role at NAMI Chicago, I worked with the Chicago Police Department and their Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) unit to supervise and support people with lived experience who volunteered to engage in the role play portion of their CIT class. These were community...
September 2018 Dear NAMI Friends and Family, I have had the incredible honor and privilege of serving as the Executive Director at NAMI Seattle for the last four and a half years. Now, it’s time to pass the torch to the next leader. We will begin our...
About four years ago, I stumbled upon an article that changed my entire experience of life. I cannot recall the precise moment and origin of my stunned discovery. It may have been a result of another exasperated search-engine attempt to comprehend my mind’s madness. However,...
August 2018 We are living in a time of increasing polarization in our communities, and I know that we are all feeling it. I feel it. There’s an anger buzzing underneath everything as people face more and more uncertainty in their lives and persecution based on...
Written by Joanne Conger, June 8th, 2018 I am heartbroken. So, this is long wail of pain. Not everyone could see how Anthony Bourdain was doing, whether or not he seemed to be fine. That is a hard thing to "see" when someone has a show. You see...
Netflix’s series "13 Reasons Why " has really gotten people talking! Parents, teens, teachers, school administrators, and mental health professionals are buzzing about whether the series raises awareness about suicide prevention, or if it does more harm than good in its depiction of high school bullying...
Throughout my four years as a high school student, the subject of mental health was something that was rarely discussed in school. While we had many different educational assemblies about cultural awareness and being kind to others, we never once had a discussion about the...