NAMI-Finger Lakes
Support, Education, and Advocacy for Families Struggling with Mental Illness

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Then please contact us.  We've been there, and we'd like to help you. 

NAMI (The National Alliance on Mental Illness) seeks to:

• Provide support for families and friends of people diagnosed with major mental illnesses
• Educate families and the public about mental illness
• Advocate for the families and their ill relatives.

NAMI-Finger Lakes is the Ithaca, NY chapter of NAMI.  We are a non-profit organization run by unpaid volunteers, and all of us have relatives suffering from major mental illness. 

We provide free Counseling and Support and a free in-class mental illness education program for school children. We also offer a free Family-to-Family Education Course for adults, and we are also happy to talk with college classes and community organizations about mental illness and its impact on families.

In addition, our Get Help, Navigating the Maze of Mental Health Care, and Even More Help: Local, Regional, and National Mental Health Resources  pages have extensive information on:  

• Psychiatric care in Ithaca and in surrounding cities (such as Binghamton, Buffalo, Corning, Cortland, Syracuse, and Rochester)
• Missing and homeless relatives
• Dual-diagnosis (diagnosed with mental illness & addicted to alcohol/drugs)
• Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice system
• Estate planning when you have ill relatives

We also suggest you view What Is It Like to Have a Mental Illness?,  which will help you better understand the challenges facing your friends and loved ones.

If you are in an emergency situation, then please consult our Crisis File.

And here is the NAMI Finger Lakes brochure that describes our organization and programs (document requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader).   Note that our members are very familiar with Ithaca's excellent social services for people recovering from mental illnesses.

We can be reached at:

NAMI-Finger Lakes Inc.

104 East Lewis Street 

Ithaca, NY 14850

Phone:  607-273-2462, or e-mail   namifl@lightlink.com

Our office is within walking distance of Cornell University and Ithaca High School, and we are across town from Ithaca College.  Our  Contact Us page contains a map and links to Google Directions and the Tompkins County TCAT Bus route map (we are near the TCAT Route 13 and 16 bus routes).  

Counseling and Support

You are invited to meet with us informally (either one-on-one or in a group setting) to chat about your situation. All members of NAMI-FL have relatives diagnosed with major mental illnesses, and we know the heartache and stress you are going through. We’ve found that simply talking about the situation is a great emotional release.

Note that all conversations are kept confidential.  Our monthly support group is currently meeting the first Tuesday of each month. Call 273-2462 for more information about the support group or one-on-one help.

Education for Adults:  The " Family-to-Family Education Course":

From March 5 to May 21, 2009 NAMI-Finger Lakes will offer a free Family-to-Family Education Program for family members who have close relatives diagnosed with:

• Bipolar Disorder - Also Called Manic Depression
• Major Depression
• Schizophrenia
• Schizoaffective Disorder
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Panic Disorder
• OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
• Dual-Diagnosis (Co-occurring Brain and Addictive Disorders)

This free series of twelve weekly classes will help family members understand and support their ill relatives while maintaining their own well-being. Class size is kept small so that everyone can share their thoughts and emotions about their own family situations, and all information is kept confidential.

The course is taught by trained volunteers who have ill relatives in their own families.  Course participants will receive extensive handouts on mental illness symptoms, diagnosis, and medications; caretaker "self-care"; and strategies for helping and communicating with our ill relatives.

Class size is limited to 20 people, and pre-registration is required.  The 2009 course will be taught by Carol Booth and Ann Carter - call 273-2462 for more information.

Please consider joining us - over 115,000 family members in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico have completed this course, and we think that you will be pleased by all the assistance the program offers.  You can view the course syllabus by clicking the "Get Help" tab above.

Education for Children: The" Breaking the Silence" Program

We feel that it is very important to teach children that mental illness is a no-fault brain disorder.  To this end, NAMI Finger Lakes will come into any classroom - upper elementary, middle school, and high school - and  present the "Breaking The Silence" Program.

"Breaking the Silence: Teaching the Next Generation About Mental Illness" (BTS) is an educational package designed to teach students on three grade levels, upper elementary, middle school, and high school about serious mental illness. It was created in 1999 by the NAMI-Queens/Nassau Education Committee with funding from NAMI’s Campaign to End Discrimination and the support of NAMI-NYS.

This attractive, easy to use educational package for three grade levels, upper elementary, middle school and high school, uses stories to humanize serious mental illness and teach that these illnesses are no-fault brain disorders. Students also examine the role the media plays in perpetuating stigma.

"One of the biggest pluses of ‘Breaking the Silence’ is that the kids now view and talk about mental illness with the same ease and sensitivity as cancer or heart disease."
 Peter Fitzpatrick, Middle School Health Teacher, Hicksville, NY" 

For more information, see the NAMI National's  Breaking The Silence Web Page: