My name is Jessica and I have been working as an intern with NAMI of Southern Nevada since late August. Since my future career will be as a psychiatrist, this internship was a perfect step in the right direction. I worked with individuals who are dealing with experiences of mental illness. Even though I was afraid most of the time to talk, I felt safe as my supervisor had my back. If I did not know how to handle a case, I would tell her my best solution and ask for advice or any extra resources. I feel able to help others out more--even giving my parents resources for low-cost legal issues. The more cases I work on, the greater my communication becomes.Some educational requirements would probably just deal with psychology. I received training but my education helped me hone in those suicide training and communication skills.
Since the organization is a non-profit, there are not many educational requirements needed to become certain roles. For example, there are Peer Recovery Support Specialists (PRSS) who do not need any formal education--just lived experience and a passion to mentor. On the downside, there are not many open positions in general, as many of the spots are filled and funding is based off of donations for that year.
One piece of advice I would give is to believe in yourself. I am in recovery at the moment but I won't let my mental disorder keep me from following the path I want to lead for myself. Nor will I let others push me down and tell me I am not enough. We are stronger than our mind, and we should be in control of our brain, not our brain controlling us. So, do that internship, even if it seems impossible.
All in all, I had a lovely experience! If there were more positions besides the mentoring, I would most definitely love to work there full time. I am so happy to have worked at NAMI, as I had been wanting to for a really long time (since my sophomore year of high school).
Here I participated at a tabling event and I watched 1st graders sing "when the band comes marching in". It was fun.