NAMI Baldwin County

 

Baldwin County’s Voice on Mental Illness

 

Mental Illness can be a Lonely Road. 

You Don’t have to Go Down it Alone!!

 

JOIN NAMI TODAY!!

Call 965-NAMI (6264)

July 27, 2010

Lantana McKenley

Shai Markis

 

Baldwin County Mental Health

 

Prevention

     Our speaker for June was Dr. Kathy Heath, EdD, from East Bay Counseling. At East Bay since 1987, Kathy has counseled children and adolescents. Originally from Ohio, Kathy has degrees in sociology, clinical psychology and counseling psychology (the latter being a PhD from Auburn). As many of our speakers, she was employed by Baldwin County Mental Health in her early career.

     Over the years, Kathy has seen her practice transition from primarily adolescents to

children under the age of 12. She estimates that ¾ of her practice is now under this age. Over the past 20 years she has seen some trends. The number of children with ADD/ADHD

diagnoses has remained relatively constant. Kathy has seen cases of autism increase

substantially. Bipolar disorder has had huge increase at her practice. All of these trends are for her practice only, but do seem to reflect national trends. Another diagnostic category that Kathy discussed was auditory processing disorder. These children have difficulty

recognizing and interpreting sounds, especially speech. Many times this disorder can be

confounded with ADHD or autism. In addition, it also can be a comorbid feature of ADD/ADHD. In any child, it is, at best, a complicated diagnosis given its relatively large number of subsets (five) of symptoms. Dr. Steve Lyrene, who was in attendance, added that “nosological orphan” diagnoses, that is conditions that are not classified as such in the DSM, have also increased in frequency.

     Kathy also discussed her responsibilities as an expert witness. In times of peak need she may be asked to testify in Bay Minette up to five times a month. This is hard work for her as truly impartial testimony can be hard to assure in family procedures in a probate court. She reemphasized that Baldwin County may be lacking in true impartiality.

     Kathy ended her presentation with a plea for more child psychiatrists. This is a well known problem. She also mentioned the NAMI Basics educational program. She is

disappointed that many parents don't follow through to attend the program.

     We thank Kathy for her presentation and her service to the children of BaldwinCounty.

 

FROM THE LAST MEETING

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS

Pamela Rawdon—Montrose

Clarence Gray—Bay Minette

Rick Sheppard—Silverhill

 

          HATS OFF TO OUR 

      VALUED SUPPORTERS

 

Janie Stephenson—Daphne

Joan Chartier—Spanish Fort

Ashley Simpson—Daphne

Louise Johnson—Gulf Shores

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Would you like to train to teach Family-To-Family?

An opportunity to be trained is coming up this Friday evening and Saturday, July 23 and 24 – in Mobile.  If you are interested in being trained to teach, contact Lynn at 251-967-7630 as soon as possible for this weekend.  There will be other opportunities in the future, so let Lynn know of your interest.  You must be a family member of an adult with mental illness.

Christi Collins, our Vice-President and now part-time employee of NAMI Alabama in charge of the InOurOwnVoice and Connections programs side-wide, has been applauded by our state organization for her wonderful work.  We will have an InOurOwnVoice presentation for one of our meetings.  If we can, we’ll arrange it for our September meeting - after our Elections.

The Suitcase Exhibit – October 18 through November 5 in Mobile

NAMI Mobile is bringing this to town.  The Suitcase Exhibit will be on display in the

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