The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is hosting its next Family to Family Education Program, 12 weekly sessions offering support and education to family members and loved ones of individuals with mental illness, in Newtown beginning in early March.

NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of persons living with serious mental illness and their families.

Family to Family sessions will begin Monday, March 3, at Newtown Christian Church, 210 Sugar Street. They will meet weekly from 7 to 9:30 pm.

For information and registration call 203-240-0936 or email hartanti@aol.com.

Also, on Wednesday, March 5, NAMI Fairfield will presents its First Wednesday of the Month Speaker Meeting featuring David Kelly, LCSW, and his talk “The World Is a Sharp Object.”

Mr Kelly is a licensed clinical social worker specializing in work with families and adolescents, in private practice in Norwalk.

According to the Mayo Clinic website, “self-injury, also called self-harm, is the act of deliberately harming your own body, such as cutting or burning yourself. It’s typically not meant as a suicide attempt. Rather, self-injury is an unhealthy way to cope with emotional pain, intense anger and frustration.

“While self-injury may bring a momentary sense of calm and a release of tension, it’s usually followed by guilt and shame and the return of painful emotions,” the website continues. “And with self-injury comes the possibility of more serious and even fatal self-aggressive actions.

“Because self-injury is often done impulsively, it can be considered an impulse-control behavior problem. Self-injury may be linked to a variety of mental disorders, such as depression, eating disorders and borderline personality disorder.”

In his talk, Mr Kelly will discuss self-injury in practical terms, with a focus on helping concerned parents and family members better spot these problem behaviors early and intervene appropriately. He will outline the etiology of self-injury as well as discuss how technology, such as the Internet, has influenced self-injurious behavior.

The meeting will be held in the Eliot Room Library of First Church Congregational, 148 Beach Road in Fairfield, from 7:30 to 9 pm. It is open to the public, is free of charge, and light refreshments will be served.’

Reservations can be done by calling 203-650-3463.

For more information call 203-650-3463 or send email to naminewsffd@earthlink.net. To learn more about the regional NAMI chapter, visit namifairfield.org.