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Mental Health is
Community Health
The Brookings Empowerment Project strives to empower caregivers and individuals with persistent mental illness by providing them with resources and support. Empower them while they traverse the highly fragmented and poorly resourced mental health care system in our community. Empower them to re-integrate themselves back into our community when their time is right. Empower them to not suffer or experience the stigma of mental illness.
Our volunteer group focuses on closing gaps in three areas:
1) Advocacy for Community and State Change
2) Community Education
3) Caregiver Support and Resources
The story of BEP is that we are a Non-Profit Action Advocacy Group that grew out of Brookings NAMI, an affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. But our story is more complex than that; it is a collage of the individual stories of people and families who face the challenge of mental illness. Our friends and neighbors, willing to share their names and stories, thus give a face to mental illness, making it easier for the community to better understand the need for working together to break down the stigma of mental illness.
Upcoming Event!
How We Help
The BEP Vision is for individuals and caregivers in our community to feel safe and supported in accessing mental health services and resources. Some key programs are: * BEP Annual Mental Health Forum in October, where leading mental health professionals and the community are brought together for discussions on targeted education topics with a moderated question and answer period
* Caregiver and family-member support groups, and
* Advocacy for resources thru state and local government.
* Working closely with the Brookings County Mental Health Coalition to provide the caregiver perspective to county-wide health activities of that coalition.
