Depression is one of the leading causes of illness and disability. NAMI, which stands for National Alliance on Mental Illness, helped with that issue and spread education on the touchy subject.

NAMI is a club that focuses on Mental Health Awareness and helps students educate themselves on mental illness and how to deal with them. They also show ways to help others that struggle with mental health issues.

Junior Briana Trujillo, president of the LAHS NAMI club said, “As a club, we want to promote education to everyone campus-wide, that mental health is a serious topic. We want people to feel like they are in a safe environment as we welcome everyone to our club, no matter what grade. Our goal this year is to promote awareness to our campus as much as we can by hosting meetings, weeks focusing on specific mental health topics, and posting through our Instagram, and much more!”

LAHS NAMI holds club meetings through Zoom, but they inform their audience on mental health topics through Instagram @lahsnami.  They also have a YouTube channel called “LAHS NAMI” which they are currently featuring a suicide prevention awareness video that spreads a positive message and share helpful resources.

Trujillo said, “We are planning on having takeovers from other student leaders from different schools, hosting weeks where we spread awareness (ex. A week where we just talked about anxiety). We are in fact actually having a Suicide Prevention Week with LAHS Diversity and Inclusion and we are hoping to co-host much more with them.”

Due to limited time and resources during this ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 NAMI will be most active on social media keeping up to date with everyone. During meetings, Secretary Sophomore Francisco Delgado creates PowerPoints with statistics about mental health issues to educate each of the members.

“For suicide prevention week, we structured our meeting, on Thursday (September 10th), around providing our members with information regarding both suicide and suicide prevention as well as resources they could look for more detailed information on these topics, and the importance of their own mental health,” said Delgado.

LAHS NAMI’s welcoming and friendly attitude invites many people to join and spread the message of being aware of mental health issues and how they affect everyone. NAMI’s goal with the video posted on YouTube was to bring the club together and spread a positive message about a topic that is consistently stigmatized and repeatedly pushed aside.

Sophomore Jasmine Rodriguez said, “I think NAMI is amazing so far! We have learned about suicide statistics, where to get help, and what we can do if we ever come across this problem whether it is with ourselves or others. I enjoy learning about mental health and I look forward to the meetings! I know many teenagers struggle with their mental health and I want to be able to help them through it.”

Members of NAMI, look forward to spreading awareness about mental health and learning ways to help others through this struggle. LAHS NAMI will continue to spread their messages through their club. They will also be most active on Instagram and YouTube to add on to these topics and share resources in their biography, including a wellness check provided by Los Altos which is a resource provided to help students in need.