NAMI / Safe Haven budget

A NAMI volunteer and education leader spoke against budget adoption, praising NAMI's crisis intervention, CIT training partnerships and outreach.

A NAMI representative warned that budget adoption would end NAMI's place at Safe Haven, saying the parish has stripped support year after year while demanding large rent.

A 27-year NAMI board member and retired CPA said the $165,000 rent is under 1% of the parish's $22 million deficit and won't fix it, but will deepen a mental health crisis.

A lifelong resident and former junior Miss St. Tammany said the parish can find money elsewhere — an $800,000 increase in the president's budget, $800 on beverages — while sacrificing free mental health services worth $1.9 million.

A 16-year NAMI volunteer said her son is alive because of NAMI and urged the council to preserve the Safe Haven residential facility serving twelve residents.

A NAMI member living with schizophrenia credited support groups with saving her life and asked the council to let NAMI stay on campus.

A NAMI employee since 2012 described answering crisis calls for a decade and urged the council to protect vulnerable residents while the tiny home village is completed.

She described her own night with a gun in her mouth and her son's suicide-note texts, saying the parish already lacks mental health help and there's no price on saving a life.

A public health professional cited 41 suicides already this year — on pace for the parish's worst ever — and asked the council to keep NAMI's services or explain how the gap will be filled.