Meet Dana DeFonso, Plenary Speaker

Excitement is mounting for our 14th Annual Education Conference on Saturday, April 12 at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott. We are pleased to welcome amazing speakers to illustrate our theme: "Young Adults and Mental Illness: Voices for Hope."  You can view the full agenda here.

Last week, we highlighted our morning keynote speaker Stacy Pershall. Today, meet Dana DeFonso, MA, Supervisor for Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Services at SPHS Behavioral Health. Dana will serve as our late morning plenary speaker on the following topic:

The Voice of Addiction: Substance Use Among Young Adults

The voice of addiction is consuming. Drugs and alcohol are becoming this voice for many youth and young adults. How can we as parents, caregivers, family members and professionals help them to hear other positive voices, and not the destructive voice of addiction? This presentation will reveal the drugs of choice for today's youth and young adults, including the effects, dangers of these substances and treatment options. The presentation will also include feedback of consumers from their own voices as to what they needed prior to, during, and after their addiction. What did they wish they would have known? What did they need for success in their recovery? We will discuss the roles connected adults can play in leading, guiding, supporting and strengthening young adults struggling with addition so that they can recover.

Continuing education credits are available for attending this conference. For more information or to register, click here.

2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health Available

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released the results of their 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) this past Thursday.  Some of the findings from the survey include:

- In 2009, 19.9 percent of American adults in the United States (45.1 million) experienced mental illness.  Nearly 20 percent (8.9 million) of these adults also had a substance use disorder.

- 11 million adults (4.8 percent) in the U.S. suffered serious mental illness in the past year (with serious mental illness defined as a diagnosable mental disorder that has substantially interfered with, or limited one or more major life activities).  25.7 percent of these adults had a substance use disorder, which is approximately four times the level experienced by people not suffering from serious mental illness (6.5 percent).

- In 2009, less than four in ten (37.9 percent) adults in the U.S. with mental illness received mental health services. Service use was higher for adults with serious mental illness (60.2 percent); however, 4.4 million adults with serious mental illness in the past year did not receive mental health services.

A copy of the full report is accessible here.  For more information about mental health be sure to visit NAMI Southwestern Pennsylvania online and keep up with our blog with a subscription to our RSS feed!


Contributed by Lora M. Dziemiela, Program Secretary