Just more than two years ago, the St. Tammany chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness officially assumed duties of the NAMI group in New Orleans. Merging the groups was a bold move, as NAMI-St. Tammany’s resources already were spread thin trying to help people in crisis across several northshore parishes.
But the thought of assuming directorship of the new NAMI-Southeast Louisiana group didn’t phase Nick Richard, who for nearly 20 years has been the face of NAMI and its myriad involvement throughout St. Tammany Parish. In fact, Richard embraced the chance to grow, even if it meant the new NAMI-SELA outfit would take in five new parishes and quadruple the number of citizens falling under one umbrella of mental health services.
Richard said there have been challenges in the 26 months since the merger, but he doesn’t see that as a bad thing. After all, the Covington native has regularly overcome obstacles throughout his professional career.
“It’s been fantastic, but it was a tough transition,” Richard said. “We’d always worked together with the New Orleans group but the northshore is a different community. There were times I questioned whether (merging) was the right decision. But I will say, not a single staff member thinks it was the wrong decision…There are assets in all our communities, but we didn’t want to lose sight of the good work we’d done in St. Tammany Parish.”
If anything, Richard said, bringing nine southeast Louisiana parishes into one group has built a feeling of community that both NAMI staff and clients noticed almost immediately.
“When you go to the Mid-City office in New Orleans, for instance, there’s just no way to articulate how good it is to see people who are otherwise alone, now together and smiling. It wouldn’t be that way if we hadn’t merged the two (NAMI groups). The doors in New Orleans would have been closed, and that would have been unthinkable.”
NAMI-SELA delivers mental health and addiction services to people in nine parishes now, including Livingston, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington on the northshore, as well as Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard south of Lake Pontchartrain.
“There are lot more miles on my truck now,” Richard said, chuckling. “But our thing always has been bringing assets and resources to the people at our door. They’re the ones we have to help. And now, the communities are helping one another.”
NAMI’s national leaders acknowledged the exceptional work Richard and his colleagues are doing across southeast Louisiana when Richard was presented the Sam Cochran Award at the NAMI National Convention in Atlanta earlier this summer. The award is one of NAMI’s most distinguished honors, given annually to a person who demonstrates “exceptional leadership, advocacy, and commitment to improving the lives of individual and families affected by mental illness.”
Cochran, a former Memphis, Tenn. police officer, was a pioneer in Crisis Intervention Training, routinely referred to as CIT, and the award given in his honor celebrates a leader who collaborates between mental health organizations, law enforcement and the community they serve.
Richard, a founding member and Vice President of Louisiana Crisis Intervention Training helped bring it to southeast Louisiana more than a decade ago. NAMI teaches the training to people across Louisiana and encourages them to share what they’ve learned with others. It’s part advocacy for people dealing with mental and behavioral health issues, but it also makes economic sense, Richard said, to teach people in various walks of life how to deescalate crisis situations.
“It’s a huge economic benefit, but it’s also about the safety of officers and the people that are undergoing the crisis,” Richard said. “The last class had police, a firefighter. The Sheriff’s Office learns the CIT and teaches it to the Student Resource Officers in our schools. And we tell everyone that this is something you can use at home or at work, too. Often, people try to control a situation, and that doesn’t work in a mental health situation. You have to bring compassion.”
Shannon Scully, director of Justice Policy & Initiatives for NAMI, says Richard changes lives.
“Nick’s leadership and compassion have left a lasting mark on his community and the NAMI alliance,” Scully said. “His genuine commitment to people, especially those who have fallen through the cracks, continues to change lives and inspires all of us working to advance mental health for all. I cannot think of another more deserving recipient of this award.”
Richard was the second St. Tammany resident to win the Sam Cochran Award, joining the late Peter Garcia, a former judge on the Louisiana 22nd Judicial District Court bench, who was instrumental in creating specialty courts in the area – entities that seek to find behavioral and mental health options for the afflicted, rather than prison cells. Garcia also was a huge proponent of NAMI and the group’s efforts.
“No other community has had two people receive the award,” Richard said. “It’s quite an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as Judge Garcia. He was an inspiration to me and so many others.”
Richard said the recognition is flattering, but he would rather be in the field helping people in their worst hour.
“The average person doesn’t know what it’s like to go through a mental health crisis, an addiction problem. But once you see it thousands of times, you know it, and I know it. The key thing with ‘intervention’ is that we do what the word implies, and that’s ‘intervene’. We have to break the cycle.”
For more information on NAMI-SELA go online to namisela.org.