Category Archives: Meeting

March Meeting: Long Lasting Injectables

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Monday, March Meeting
Virtual Meeting
7:30 PM, Monday, March 20, 2023

Please come to hear Dr. Vivian Tang speak about the use of long lasting injectables in our second “Ask the Doctor” meeting of 2023. Dr. Tang will talk about the current use of long-acting injectables in outpatient clinic, including in which situations they are used, how they are started, pros and cons, and which patients may benefit the most from these forms of medication.

Dr. Vivian Tang earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry at Stanford University and her Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy at USC. She worked at an intensive outpatient psychiatry clinic as an occupational therapist before going back to medical school to complete her MD at USC. She came to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center to train in the Adult Psychiatry Residency Program and currently works as an attending physician in the Harbor-UCLA Adult Outpatient Clinic. Dr. Tang is also a UCLA Clinical Instructor of Psychiatry and teaches UCLA medical students and residents at Harbor-UCLA in the outpatient setting.

This meeting will be conducted via Zoom. To attend, see our Monthly email Newsletter for login information or contact Paul Stansbury for information and access. pstans5@aol.com.

Feb. 27 Meeting–Choosing a Therapist

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Virtual Meeting
7:30 PM, Monday,
February 27,2023

Please come to hear Dr. Janice Jones speak about how to choose a therapist in our first “Ask the Doctor” meeting of 2023. There are several important questions to consider in finding the right therapist. Choosing and finding a therapist is a frequent issue in our support groups and on our help lines. It can take persistence and dedicated efforts to address these questions. Dr. Jones will help up us identify and consider those questions.

Dr. Janice Jones earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wesleyan University and her master’s and doctorate degrees in clinical psychology from UCLA. She completed her predoctoral internship at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI; now the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior) and received postdoctoral training at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Twin Towers Correctional Facility. Currently, Dr. Jones provides direct services to adult clients in the Adult Outpatient Program in the Division of Psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA.

Dr. Jones has provided direct services in both inpatient and outpatient mental health settings in community mental health clinics, academic teaching hospitals, and correctional settings. She has had extensive training and experience in evidence-based treatments, particularly in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). Dr. Jones is a diplomate and certified CBT therapist and supervisor in the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. She is on the adult Dialectical Behavioral Therapy treatment team at Harbor-UCLA and is trained as a DBT Team Leader. She also provides consultation to providers and treatment teams conducting DBT in LA County Department of Mental Health clinics and contracted agencies. In addition, Dr. Jones provides countywide trainings on Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and cultural competency in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. She has been teaching and providing clinical supervision for more than 20 years to psychology graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and psychiatry residents at Harbor-UCLA as well as previously at the Department of Psychology at UCLA, the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and Twin Towers Correctional Facility. She is currently a Health Science Assistance Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She has also held appointments as Assistant (2005-2013) and Associate (2013-2020) Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychology at UCLA.

January Meeting will be Monday, January 23, 2023

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Happy New Year!

Our January meeting will be our annual Organizational Meeting and Annual Report..

Monday, 7:30 PM
January 23,2023
Virtual

We hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Because of the holiday on the third Monday we will be meeting on the fourth Monday of January.

Please join us for this important meeting on the plans for NAMI South Bay in 2023. Our Organization Meeting will include an annual report on activities and programs in 2022, advocacy issues for 2023, a report on the merger with NAMI Greater Los Angeles County (GLAC), a discussion on needs in the South Bay for addressing the challenges of mental illness, and plans for 2023. Your input and thoughts are important to the programs and services that NAMI South Bay will be seeking to provide in 2023. See you on January 23.

This meeting will be conducted via Zoom. To attend, see our Monthly email Newsletter for login information or contact Paul Stansbury for information and access. pstans5@aol.com.

The Family Support Group usually schedule before our monthly meeting will be held at 6 PM on Monday, January 23.

Holiday Get-Together!

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11 AM to 1 PM
Saturday, December 10, 2022
Charles H. Wilson Park
2200 Crenshaw Blvd,
Torrance, CA

Please plan to come to a Holiday Get-Together on Saturday, December 10 at Wilson Park. We had hoped to have our traditional holiday potluck indoors but with the recent surge in the various illnesses have decided to have an outdoor event. It will be a chance to meet and greet persons we have only seen in zoom at our monthly meetings, Family to Family, Familia de Familia, Basics, Peer to Peer, and Connections Program over almost the last three years. We hope that those who attended these program will take a little tiime out of their busy holiday schedule to stop by and say hello.

We will be giving away some copies of the NAMI You Are Not Alone book written by Dr. Ken Duckworth for which there was a recent book signing. We will do a short presentation on the book and the importance of telling our story.

Please see this map for information, location and parking where we will be at Wilson Park. Any questions, just let Nami South Bay President Paul Stansbury know: pstans5@aol.com.

The Family Support Group usually schedule before our monthly meeting will be held at the same time and day of the month 6 PM on Monday, Dec 19 . 

November Meeting will be Monday the 14th — CalABLE

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Please Note: Our November meeting in 2022 with be Monday 11/14/22 (the second Monday of the month, rather than the third).

NAMI South Bay Monthly Meeting (Virtual)
7:30 PM
Monday, November 14, 2022

CalABLE

Dante Allen, the Executive Director of the State of California Achieving a Better Life Experience (CalABLE) Program, will present information on the program. CalABLE is a savings and investment plan offered by the state of California to individuals who developed a disability by age 26.

Eligible individuals, family, friends, and employers can contribute up to $16,000 per year, and up to $100,000 total, without affecting eligibility for public disability benefits. CalABLE account owners who work can contribute even more to their accounts. Best of all, earnings on qualified withdrawals are federal and California state tax-free. Small amounts may still be very helpful in providing funds for persons with a mental illness and avoiding problems with government benefits.

This presentation will cover CalABLE basics and provide you with an opportunity to ask any questions you may have about CalABLE. This program provides a very valuable option for families and persons with a mental illness to consider.

This meeting will be conducted via Zoom. To attend, see our Monthly email Newsletter for login information or contact Paul Stansbury for information and access. pstans5@aol.com.

Meeting Tonight – Dialectical Behavior Therapy

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Monday, October 17, 2021, 7:30 PM Virtual
Presenter: Dr. Dorit Saberi

Dialectical Behavior Therapy-
Treating Emotion Dysregulation & Trauma.
A Program Adapted for Friends and Families.

This presentation will highlight the theory and practice of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, a treatment originally developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan to help people who were suicidal and struggling with self-harm urges. The workshop will address the application of this modality to friends and family of individuals who currently struggle with intense emotional and behavioral dyscontrol. The workshop will include a panel of friends and family members of consumers who will talk about their personal struggles with a family member diagnosed with BPD or other disorders marked with emotion dysregulation. They will also share the application of the skills with their family members, the obstacles and challenges and the advantages and impact of DBT on their lives.

This meeting will be conducted via Zoom. To attend, see our Monthly email Newsletter for login information or contact Paul Stansbury for information and access. pstans5@aol.com.

Dorit Saberi, Ph.D is a Supervising Psychologist at AMI/ABLE Integrated Services/Wellness at Harbor UCLA, and Co-Founder/Clinical Director of the Safe Harbor- Trauma Recovery Center at Harbor UCLA Medical Center. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) – David Geffen School of Medicine and a part-time faculty member at California State University, Long Beach- Psychology Department. She is an investigator at the Lundquist Institute, Harbor UCLA Medical Center. She conducts research, provides direct services, supervision teaching and consultations in Evidence Based Practices adapted for diverse populations and children, adolescents and adult survivors of interpersonal violence such as gang related violence, human-trafficking, and immigration/refugee trauma.

Dr. Saberi is an author of several grants, educational curricula, and best practice parameters related to the development and implementation of trauma-informed/trauma-specific care. She serves as a Vice-Chair on the Board of Directors for Fostering Unity- a nonprofit 510c3 organization focused on providing care to resource parents and foster children to preserve and stabilize family connection and prevent the trauma of displacement and frequent transitions. She also serves as a consultant and trainer for various Harbor UCLA and community organizations. Dr. Saberi is certified as a Prolonged Exposure for PTSD therapist, supervisor and trainer through Edna Foa’s Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety (CTSA). She is also a certified Cognitive Behavior therapist and a diplomate of Aaron Beck Academy of Cognitive Therapy, and a Certified Teacher of Community Resiliency Model (CRM®). She is also a certified NEABPD Family Connections teacher.

Dr. Saberi is the founder of the DBT Friends and Family program at Harbor UCLA, which began in October 2009. This program has been instrumental in providing education and support to NAMI families and community members wishing to improve relationships with their loved ones who are diagnosed with mental illness.

September Meeting–Making Meaning of Loss

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NAMI South Bay Monthly Meeting (Virtual)
7:30 PM
Monday, September 19, 2022

Making Meaning of Loss — Stories from Lived Experience

As part of Suicide Prevention Month, at our NAMI South Bay September meeting we will be viewing a webinar with Dr. Ken Duckworth, NAMI National Medical Director, as part of the Suicide Prevention series.

Dr. Duckworth will be talking with four individuals who shared their stories of surviving suicide loss in the Chapter: Making Meaning of Loss by Suicide from the upcoming book, You Are Not Alone: The NAMI Guide to Navigating Mental Health.

At our zoom meeting we will be discussing the presentation and the efforts in the South Bay to be part of the effort to prevent suicides.

The meeting will be virtual. Please contact Nami South Bay President, Paul Stansbury (pstans5@aol.com) for remote access information.