College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists

CPNP Participates in 2011 NAMI Annual Convention

For the seventh consecutive year, CPNP participated extensively in the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) National Convention held in Chicago, IL, July 6-9. The 2011 NAMI National Convention hosted several thousand consumers, caregivers and healthcare professionals.

According to Steve Burghart, DPh, BCPP, MBA and Consumer Relations Committee Chair, attendees at the NAMI Convention are “so grateful and appreciative making participation in this convention incredibly rewarding as a result.”

CPNP contributed the following to the 2011 NAMI Convention.

• Educational Programming: CPNP members Steve Burghart, Jennifer Zacher and Kimberly Linter presented a workshop entitled “Suicidality and Risks of Medications Used to Treat Mental Illness” Burghart, Zacher and Linter presented the workshop on Friday, July 8.
• Wellness Center: CPNP members provided many hours of one-on-one counseling to individuals concerning their questions on medications, medication interactions, side effects, and adherence strategies through the NAMI Wellness Center’s Ask the Psychiatric Pharmacist booth.
• CPNP Booth: As a means to promote the profession and services of psychiatric pharmacists, CPNP members manned a CPNP booth for over 15 hours during the Convention. Members assisting in manning the booth and visiting with consumers, family members, and health professions included CPNP active members Steve Burghart, Maggie Zasadzki, David Fuentes, Tami Argo, Jeff Bishop, Carol Ott, Lagenia Bailey, Jennifer Zacher, Jeanne Peterson, Kathryn Patrick, Lindsey Corbets; CPNP student members Nora Roman, Caitlin Lentz, Jeremy Daniel, and Katie Jacobs (Purdue University) also assisted in supporting outreach via the CPNP booth. 

In an effort to provide service to consumers and caregivers, CPNP continues to conduct the following activities in partnership with NAMI outside of the NAMI National Convention:

• Authoring of medication fact sheets for the NAMI website. View these at: http://www.nami.org/template.cfm?section=About_Medications
• Authoring of Ask the Psychiatric Pharmacist columns for the NAMI website. View these at: http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Ask_the_Pharmacist&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=61&ContentID=28925
• Availability of a CPNP member speaker’s bureau to local NAMI chapters.
• The annual CPNP Walks for NAMI Fundraiser conducted by CPNP at the CPNP Annual Meeting. Last year over $5000 was donated to NAMI thanks to generous attendee donations and a match from CPNP. 

The 2012 NAMI Annual Convention will be held at the Seattle Sheraton in downtown Seattle, from June 27-30, 2012. CPNP anticipates continuing involvement in the Convention through many of the same activities as in 2011 and welcomes the involvement of Washington and Northwest area CPNP members.