One-in-four adults experience a mental health disorder in a given year. One-in-17 adults lives with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder and one in 10 children live with a serious mental or emotional disorder. Mental illness is so common and yet no one talks about it. NAMI Eastside, the East King County Affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is here to help but no one knows about us. In addition to support and education for those impacted by mental illness, we also do public education. On March 8 Northshore Baptist Church is hosting a free conference for parents, caretakers, educators and clinicians.

The keynote speakers are Cinda Johnson and Linea Johnson, authors of Perfect Chaos, A Daughter’s Struggle to Survive Bipolar and a Mother’s Journey to Save Her. That will be followed by presentations by eight experts in their fields; each attendee selects two.

Registration is available on our website, www.nami-eastside.org or people can call our office at 425-885-6264 for information. Mental illness is all around us and we need to start talking about this. This conference is an opportunity to start the conversation.

CEU’s and Clock Hours have been approved for the conference.

Northshore Baptist Church is located at 10301 NE 145th St. in Kirkland near the boundary with Bothell.