Beginning Dec. 7, NAMI Connection (formerly NAMI-CARE) will meet from 7 to 8:30 p.m. every Monday at Timbers Restaurant’s back dining room.

It is a support group for people recovering from mental illness. It is a place to find acceptance, support and friendship. Mental illnesses are bio-chemical brain diseases that severely disturb one’s ability to think, feel, and relate to others and to the environment.

There have been cuts in staff and funding in mental health in the Winona area.

As all of us at NAMI-CARE have witnessed, psychiatric specialists have worked with their patients for a considerable time and are well-acquainted with the medical treatment regimens that have been prescribed. At the present time, for almost any psychiatrist in the area, appointments are booked out more than three months, no matter how severe your mental illness is.

Some of our members are on disability and programs like Social Security for disabled individuals, waivered services, have personal care attendants, Medicaid for employed persons, and vocational rehabilitation, which are essential services for people with disabilities. Social Security for disabled individuals supplements us and helps us to be able to live independently, since many of us are limited on how much we can work.

Waivered services give people money for spending for rent and simple things like pop, money for the bus, recreation and personal things in a group home.

Personal care attendants make sure that a person’s personal needs are met, like bathing, eating and laundry.

Medicaid for employed persons allows people on disability to have supplemental medical coverage in exchange for working some.

Vocational rehabilitation helps people with disabilities to find jobs, provides job supervision and provides people with training and aids necessary to deal with their disabilities in a trade.

Having a job provides self-esteem and a way to contribute to society. We need to keep these programs so that we have medical care and we can function in society with our disability.

As you can see, these programs help us, and funding cuts can have far-reaching implications for those people with mental illness.