Direct Services
Access to resources and communities for those
impacted by mental illness
What We Offer
Accessible, impactful support for individuals with mental
illness and their loved ones
Next Steps
A recovery-oriented peer and family support program to assist participants in achieving their goals
Next Steps works in partnership with San Diego County Psychiatric Hospital to assist participants in achieving their personally identified goals related to mental health, physical health and substance use.
Drawing on their own lived experience, staff empower participants and their loved ones to start working toward their own goals in recovery and in life. We believe that one of the best ways to find hope and strength in yourself is by actively working with your own plans for success.
We want to hear your voice and connect you with the resources you need. Through peer support and role modeling, Next Steps Program aims to reduce the stigma related to mental health and substance use that often creates significant barriers to recovery.
- For adults 18 years or age or older that are currently in the San Diego County Psychiatric Hospital, or were seen there within the last 30 days, including in the Emergency Room.
- If eligible, participants are connected to a peer support specialist or substance use counselor (as appropriate) for up to six months.
- For more information, contact us at (619) 542-4166
Friends in the Lobby
We offer smiles, compassion, information, and hope to visitors seeing their loved ones in behavioral health or psychiatric units
It can be extremely stressful and traumatic to have a loved one in a hospital for a behavioral health emergency. To ease this stress and promote mental wellness, mental health education and support, NAMI San Diego has created an innovative program named Friends in the Lobby (FIL).
Friends in the Lobby’s mission is to provide outreach and engage individuals visiting their loved ones in local hospitals. Trained NAMI San Diego FIL Volunteers have a designated space in the lobby area of hospitals during visitation hours where they provide visitors with information on NAMI and other local mental health resources.
Most FIL Volunteers have lived experience in the mental health system and know just how stressful and traumatic these experiences can be. By offering smiles, compassion, information and hope, visitors are introduced to valuable resources and support that provide much needed relief in these stressful times.
- Monthly Education and Advocacy meetings
Clubhouses
San Diego: All clubhouses are open Monday - Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Our clubhouses serve individuals living with mental health concerns by proving a dignified space for members that promotes continuing recovery.
They offer in-house resources, case management, outreach, and referrals to support participants in accessing mental health and housing services.
Connection 2 Community (C2C) is a Clubhouse International accredited Clubhouse run by NAMI San Diego. C2C serves individuals experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity with mental health concerns. Located in the heart of Downtown San Diego, C2C offers in house resources, case management, outreach, and referrals to support participants in accessing mental health and housing services.
NAMI San Diego Clubhouses are community-based mental health program that offers opportunities for Members (program participants) to build meaningful relationships, utilize and expand their vocational skills, and gain the independence to live healthy, quality lives. Members and staff at the Clubhouses work together as partners to perform all duties of the Clubhouse. In addition, the Clubhouses provide employment & education support, Social Security benefits advocacy, social programming, and opportunities to connect with other resources in the community. Membership is voluntary, free, and open to adults in San Diego County living with a mental health condition.
NAMI San Diego Clubhouses are community-based mental health program that offers opportunities for Members (program participants) to build meaningful relationships, utilize and expand their vocational skills, and gain the independence to live healthy, quality lives. Members and staff at the Clubhouses work together as partners to perform all duties of the Clubhouse. In addition, the Clubhouses provide employment & education support, Social Security benefits advocacy, social programming, and opportunities to connect with other resources in the community. Membership is voluntary, free, and open to adults in San Diego County living with a mental health condition.
NAMI San Diego Clubhouses are community-based mental health program that offers opportunities for Members (program participants) to build meaningful relationships, utilize and expand their vocational skills, and gain the independence to live healthy, quality lives. Members and staff at the Clubhouses work together as partners to perform all duties of the Clubhouse. In addition, the Clubhouses provide employment & education support, Social Security benefits advocacy, social programming, and opportunities to connect with other resources in the community. Membership is voluntary, free, and open to adults in San Diego County living with a mental health condition.
Housing and
Homelessness Services
Contact Encampment Resolution Program Manager Michelle LeFever at (858) 306-2578 or email: michellelefever@namisd.org
Encampment Resolution Outreach Team
We are a long-term case management team that follows clients from street encampment to moving into a unit of their own and beyond with intensive case management to sustain their housing long-term.
NAMI San Diego prides itself on providing the best side-by-side case management due to our evidence-based peer support model and dedication to case management thought a mental health lenses. The idea behind this pilot is simple. Individuals will have more success if they are supported by a consistent person-centered team and are given support biased on their individualized requests and needs.
NAMI San Diego's encampment resolution program is an interdisciplinary team built of three case managers, one benefits specialist, two Housing Solution Specialist (one with a specialty in SUD and one with a specialty in placement coordination) and a supervisor with expert knowledge on client rapport and San Diego recourses.
The team has a set caseload of 75 unique individuals who have been selected from a geographic area back in June of 2023, all of which were part of an encampment and were completely unhoused. We have pledged to these 75 individuals that we will case manage them for the next 2 years and provide them when whatever tools and support they state will lead to their housing placement, in addition to providing rap around services and funding past housing placement. The end goal is that by June 2025, all 75 individuals will be sustainably housed.
Hear Us Project
The Hear Us Project is an in-person and side-by-side educational program for first-time or newly housed neighbors.
Getting housing is one thing, but staying housed is a whole new skillset. Our team goes into a newly housed household and with a curriculum written by peers for peers on how to stay successfully housed. Our curriculum is tailored to meet the needs for each individual and will teach anything from how to set up your phone line to how often you need to take out the bathroom trash.
For more information, please contact:
Residential Program Manager Deanna Stevens, (858) 463-2464 or deannastevens@namisd.org
Residential Lead Lawanda Sullivan, (858) 290-1599 or lawandasullivan@namisd.org
For more information, please contact:
Director of Independence and Housing Vanessa Onstad, (858) 462-0916, or vanessaonstad@namisd.org
HOPE Outreach Team
Our person-centered Outreach team services San Diego County with a focus on prevention, diversion, and creative community-based solutions. The team includes 3 Homeless Outreach Workers who specialize in prevention, diversion and rapid solution strategies. We also keep an inventory of open vacancies, maintain positive relationships with local landlords, and assist in coordinating placements for housing ready individuals.
We provide intervention to those who are imminently risk of becoming homeless or unhoused by leveraging flexible funding to keep current housing, supporting individuals in benefits attainment and/or attaining earned income, mediation, support individuals to reconnect with family, roommate search and matching, and most importantly, tailoring creative housing solutions that are identified by the client themselves.
We will continue to work alongside those supported by the program for the next 6 months to set up housing sustainability plans. Additionally, we will work with unhoused and unsheltered individuals to provide more intensive diversion and rapid response through case management paired with individualized creative housing solutions. All program participants will receive connections to primary care, case management and engagement, referrals and linkages to mental health treatment, housing substance abuse treatment, health resources, and educational services benefits.
For more information, please contact Vista Hill Program Manager Ashley Anello, (858) 422-4635 or ashleyanello@namisd.org
Independent Living Home in Vista
Our Vista home sits upon scenic rolling hills on acres of land and serves as a forever home for the sons and daughters of Vista. We have residents that have called the house their home for over 30 years!
Each resident has their own room and access to a shared bathroom, living room, kitchen family room and a beautiful sprawling yard that surrounds them. Residents have the shared responsibility of keeping up the house and garden, cleaning, grocery shopping and preparing their own food.
Our home is approved by the Independent Living Association (ILA). This means we follow an evidence based model that leads to sustainable client success in shared housing. The standard focusing boundaries for residents to create the most independent setting. Residential staff are there as building and utility management.
If residents need more support, we encourage residents to work with their case managers from other programs. Please note, we are not a board and care, skilled nursing home, or long-term care facility. If you are interested in those options, please reach out to your health care provider for more information.