About Us NAMI San Diego's History

NAMI San Diego's History

The San Diego affiliate of NAMI began in the early 1970s as a group called "Parents of Adult Schizophrenics". These parents met around their kitchen tables to give each other support in this era which parents were thought to be the cause of their children's mental illness. In 1978, the chapter incorporated as the San Diego Alliance for the Mentally Ill. That same year, the California Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI California) was also incorporated while the following year the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) was incorporated.

Today, our affiliate has over 400 members. While most NAMI affiliates have only a phone number, NAMI San Diego has an office that houses paid operations staff and the volunteers who staff the phone service. The office is called the Albright Information and Referral Center. It was named after a client, Jim Albright, who, in 1984, raised the need for a center to Dr. Robert Moore, Medical Director of Mesa Vista Hospital. Dr.Moore arranged for the Vista Hill Foundation to make a monetary contribution that was matched by a County Mental Health block grant. The Albright Center received county funding until 1997. The center continues to provide a wide array of services, but the funding changes resulted in the transfer of one of the services previously provided, the Crisis Hotline. The Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) was assigned to a newly-formed organization which specialized in PERT services.

"NAMI San Diego - Over 20 Years Ago"

by
Helen Teisher
Founder and Former President

Unveiling of founder Helen Teisher's portrait at NAMI San Diego's open house, May 29, 2002. Presented by donor, Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital's Chief Operating Officer, Karenlee Robinson.

In February 1978, we were a group of 31 parents and friends of people experiencing mental illness. We were a small group of strangers bonded only by an urgent need to ease the sorrow and turmoil in our families caused by mental illness. Our even more fervent desire was to improve the quality of life for our mentally ill loved ones.

With experience we became brave enough to act and learned to act in a temperate and responsible way. We dared to step into the community seeking understanding about mental illness and justice and competence in caring for them. As time passed and our understanding grew we became more and more political. We knew that the legislative and administrative branches of the government control the laws and policies which directly impact the care and treatment of the mentally ill. Decisions related to our mentally ill relatives are made by those in positions of power and so our efforts were directed to those decision makers to insure justice for our relatives. We sought to form every coalition, friendship, partnership and association to further our quest for understanding and fairness for our families.

The stated purposes for our self-help mutual support organization was to:

• search for better understanding of the causes and treatment of schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses.

• enable persons with psychiatric disabilities to achieve self-esteem and to realize their highest potential.

We have been eminently successful in all of our work and have taken our place in the community as a credible and trustworthy community agency.