This is a letter to the Board of Directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Berks County, PA instead of our December meeting. It discusses my vision as president of our organisation on where we need to go and how to do it. The three focal points are the "mentally ill" in sub-clinical crisis, community outreach and suicide prevention.

1. Since we are not meetingagainuntil January17,it isa goodtime to share mythoughtson where we shouldbe going
and why inplace of the December20 BOD meeting.
Overthe lastseveral monthsIhave become convincedthatthe future of NAMIand especiallyBerksNAMIisina new
understandingof mental illnessandthe mentallyill whoneedwhatwe offer.NAMIwasfoundedtohelpthe critically
mentallyill andtheirfamilies.BerksNAMIwassimilarlyfounded.However,thatisnotwhere the majorityof the
mentallyill like myselfare tobe found.Instead,peoplelikeme are the people inperpetual low-levelsub-clinical crisis;
the outcastes,the people kickedintothe gutterasworthless trashbysociety,ourfriendsand,mostpainfully,byour
families,because we donotquite fitin.We are alsothe people toldcontinuallythatunlesswe doexactlyasour
therapiststell us,take the medsourpsychiatristsgive usanddoeverything exactlyrightwe canperhaps,miraculously,
live somethingresemblinga“normal”life.Thisisanextremelyflawedvision whichtotallydiscounts whowe are and the
huge numberof societychangingideaswe have developedand broughttoreality.
I absolutelydespise the words “illness”,“disability”,“liability”, “disease”andsimilar.These termsdegrade me and
otherslike me, makingourcontributionsandpotential contributions tooursociety seemlike irrelevantaccidents.When
I talkwithpeople whohave bipolarfriendsorfamilyphraseslike “incrediblycreative”,and“veryintelligent”are always
inthe conversation. Whatwe have contributed oftendwarfsthe contributionsbythe “mentallyhealthy” and“sane”.
What I, andthose like me,cando in an inspiredmorningmostpeoplecannotdoina lifetime. Therefore,we needto
redefine the languagewe use andhowwe use itto accuratelyreflectwhat people like me are,whatwe doand whatwe
contribute toour world.
One of my biggestissuesandsomethingwe are capable of doingisto encourage and helppeople likeme touse our
giftsforthe bettermentof ourworld. Asfaras I can tell,itisa huge lackin the mental healthcommunityreflective of
our preconceptionsaboutpeople like me andourcapabilities.WhenItalk withpeoplelikemyself abouthowtheyhave
beengiftedandthe needtouse theirgiftstomake the worldbetter,the relief andhope intheirfacesislike the sun
emergingfromamorningfogor the calmafter a hurricane.They now have hope,joy,purpose andareasonfor living for
the firsttime inmany years.
Thissaid,we needtothinkabouthow we can reach the people likeme, andthe waysouroutreach can be effective to
the whole of the mental healthcommunity. Aswe workwiththe original NAMIvisionforthe 1% incritical crises,we
needtobe reachingoutto the 99% wholike me live in continual low-levelcrisis orlive apparently“normal”lives.There
are abundantservicesforthe 1%.There are fewif anyoutreachesforpeople likeme because we are invisible unlesswe
have a crisisrequiringmedical attention.Toreachthe 99% we needto go the places they are foundand congregate;the
churches,community(service) organizations,barbershops,beautyshops,tattooshops,tavernsandbars. I am even
willingtogoto the gun clubsif itmeanshelpingsomeoneincontinual low-level crisisorpreventingasuicide.
If we reach out to organizationssuchaschurchesand communityservice clubswe reachouttoorganizationswhich
have generationsof membersfromthe same families,memberswhohave ahistoryof long-termcommitmenttoa
cause.The benefitsare three-fold:1.) we reachpeople like me andtheirfamilies whocanuse what BerksNAMI offersto
make theirlivesbetter,2.) we gainlongtermcommittedmembers whichgive ourorganizationstability insteadof the
short-termmembershipswe see fromthe peopleinamental healthcrisisandtheirfamilies and3.) we gainpeople who
will volunteertoleadourvariousoutreachesandprogramsovermanyyears,evendecades.
To finish,alarge part of my focusison suicide preventionsincethatisa huge part of the bipolarpathology. As
someone whohasfaceddownsuicide manytimes anddoessoona continual basisIcan talkto people like myself and
the general communityaboutthe subjectinwaysthatreach them. I donot expectothermembersof ourBOD or Berks
NAMI togo in the same direction,butexpecteachtofollow the directiontheyare mostcomfortable withand
concernedabout.Together,thisdiversityof directionwill make ourorganizationstrongerandbetterable tomeetthe
diverse needsof ourcommunity.