NAMI was built and thrives from the voices and stories of individuals living with Mental Illnesses and their families.  This year's "Family & Consumer" track honors the lives of those brave people.  This  year, our Family and Consumer track will  feature experts who will speak from an international and local level about the incredible journey and continuing challenges faced by families and individuals living with mental illness today.  As well, we will hear about promising models and practices  that are improving lives!

This year's conference features a line-up of great speakers, panels and workshops focusing on family and consumer experiences:

Consumer & Family Engagement

Plenary Speaker 

Dr. William Beardslee, MD

Director, Baker Prevention Initiatives,

Boston Children's Hospital,

& Gardner/Monks Professor of Child Psychiatry,

Harvard Medical School

Panels and Workshops:

Panel:  A Family's Success Story, with Lived Experiences

Danny, Ben, Tom and Nancy Gibbs

The Gibbs family shares their journey with Mental Illness and their connection with NAMI. Learn from this families powerful journey and ask questions. Families and individuals growing together is what NAMI is all about.

Consumer & Family Engagement Track Workshops:

Maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle working toward positive goals with other community members may be a key to success for many people living in recovery from mental illness. For Wilson Loza, his journey to recovery went from isolation to becoming an inspiration to many community members as he continues to positively impact others with his hard work and dedication, and sharing his personal story as a Presenter NAMI programs such as Mental Health 101 and In Our Own Voice. 

Now living in recovery with Bipolar Disorder, Wilson recounted the onset of symptoms that pushed him to seek recovery:  "In college, that was when I started to feel suicidal. Everything at that point exploded. And that's why I dropped out of college. I experienced extreme isolation, sleeping for days, sometimes staying awake for days, feeling hopeless, and having poor self-esteem."

Because of Wilson's denial regarding his mental health condition and mental health stigma in his community, it wasn't until his late 20s to early 30s that Wilson finally sought a diagnosis and began treatment for Bipolar Disorder.

"I didn't react at first because I didn't know what bipolar meant," Wilson said in an interview. "I felt like some kind of monster - I'm this and now what? I just felt terrible because I thought what am I going to do now? Will I be treated forever? I didn't have a lot of knowledge. That's when I started to reluctantly get help. Even after that it took a couple years for me to really get help."

These days, Wilson maintains his quality of life at a stable level with the help of his psychiatrist, therapist, and his prescribed bipolar medication. Wilson also uses coping skills he's learned, like reaching out to others, and staying involved in his community. In addition to his work as a Presenter for NAMI California and NAMI Sacramento, Wilson teaches English as a Second Language, manages an apartment building and helps plan community events such as the NAMI Walk.

"I think it's important to keep active because for some of us, it's a form of therapy. I feel that it's important to be around positive environments and people. It's good to be involved in something in the community, whether it's NAMI or something else. It's important to not isolate and be around people and to remind ourselves that we have a lot to offer despite our disability."

In addition to meeting with local agencies and service providers to reach out to the Latino, Korean, Vietnamese and Farsi Speaking communities, Batista also has NAMI programs scheduled at the Latino Health Access facility. Batista stated, "We are also working closely with the local Highway Patrol and the City of Irvine Police Departments to raise awareness and break the stigma particularly among (these) communities."

NAMI Orange County is also making a significant effort to reach out to their local LGBTQ population.

"We are also reaching out to the local LGBTQ center in OC (The Center OC) . . .  to provide In Our Own Voice and hopefully organize a support group targeting the local LGBT community," Batista added, "... We established a new connection with AIDS Services Foundation to reach out to the HIV/AIDS community; they expressed their interest in our Provider Education Program."