Helping the Hurting: Chronic Illness and Your Mental Health

The 4th Annual Helping the Hurting conference- Chronic Illness and Your Mental Health was a great success!

 On behalf of the Helping the Hurting conference planning committee, THANK YOU to our conference sponsors- Midlands Technical College, Mental Health America of South Carolina, NAMI Mid-Carolina, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention- SC Chapter.

 If you or your organization would be interested in participating in next year's Helping the Hurting conference, please contact the Mental Health America of South Carolina office, 803-779-5363.

NAMI South Carolina's Annual Conference, "Is Anyone Listening? Finding the Right Path to Good Patient/Clinician/Family Communication" will feature keynote speaker, Andrew Sperling JD, the federal legislative advocacy director for NAMI who will present "Up to Date Mental Health Legislative Trends and the 50th Anniversary of the Community Mental Health Care Act."

Other speakers include Karen Winters Schwartz, author of "Where are the Cocoa Puffs?: A Family's Journey Through Bipolar Disorder" and  Reis's Pieces: Love, Loss, and Schizophrenia.

Several Break Out Sessions will be held throughout the day on topics such as gun control legislation, children's mental health, stress relief, social security work incentive programs available in South Carolina.

For more information and to register for the NAMI SC Annual Conference, contact the NAMI-SC office 1-800-788-5131.  

September is suicide prevention month.  In 2010, over 38,000 people died by suicide in the United States. This translates to one suicide every 13.7 minutes. Suicide is the leading cause of violent death in the United States.

Every fall, family members, friends, and colleagues walk 3-5 miles together in hundreds of communities across the nation to prevent suicide, raise awareness, and end the stigma that surrounds depression and other mental disorders. 

For more information on the Out of the Darkness Walks and Suicide Prevention visit www.afsp.org or contact Helen Pridgen at the SC AFSP office.