In early 2017, the National Alliance on Mental Illness also known as NAMI started a support group for family members and close friends of someone with a mental illness in Jackson County.

That support group which also serves Bartholomew County continues to meet at 6 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at Rockford Community Church, 1934 N. State Road 11, Seymour.

On Sunday, the group known as NAMI of South Central Indiana held its third annual NAMIWalks to raise funds, which will be used to support the chapter’s free educational programs and fund its advocacy and outreach efforts

Last year’s NAMI Walk was held in Columbus while the 2022 walk — the first one — was held in Seymour. This year’s walk started and ended at the shelter house at Shields Park.

Carol Oktavec, a member of the group’s board, said the decision to alternate the walk between the two counties came about for one reason.

“So, everyone gets to be a part of the ‘NAMI Experience’,” she said.

Autumn Fischvogt, who is a freshman at the University of Indianapolis, and her grandmother, Myra Fischvogt, both of Scipio, had the “NAMI Experience” on Sunday and it went so well they plan to participate in the future.

“It’s a great idea,” Myra said. The Fischvogts have a family member with a mental illness, which drew them to the support group in the first place.

“I can’t see our issue going away,” Myra said. “It will get better hopefully, but not go away.”

Seymour Police Chief Greg O’Brien served as the honorary chairman for the walk.

“I’ve been in law enforcement for 29 years,” he told the group before the walk — actually walks of one mile and two miles — started.

“I can tell you when I went to the police academy many, many moons ago, mental illness was not part of any training we had,” he said. “Back then, you commit a crime. We took you to jail. We did not have the resources to do anything. In the last couple of years, we now have a Stride Center in Columbus where we can take someone in crisis.

“We have been training our officers in critical intervention training so they can become part of the CIT team.”

O’Brien said NAMI was established in 1979 by a group of parents sitting around a kitchen table in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Today, they are the leading voice for mental health in the United States,” O’Brien said.

In the future, Oktavec said the hope is to expand the support group to Jennings County.

“We need some key people to rise up in Jennings County to get that kicked off,” she said.

The free confidential group is not for the mentally ill person, said Oktavec who has been trained to lead family-to-family classes.

“It’s for their family members,” she said. “We do not open it up to just the public because the public in general doesn’t understand mental illness.”

NAMIWalks participants who raised a $100 in Sunday’s event received an event T-shirt for their efforts. A youth art contest drew more than two dozen entries and included prizes of several $25 gift cards to Dairy Queen of Columbus or Kovener’s Korner in Seymour. The theme for that contest was “I am the steps you take on the path to hope. I AM NAMIWALKS.” There also was information available from area organizations including the Stride Center, which is a crisis diversion program serving residents of Bartholomew and surrounding counties who are experiencing mental health crises or related challenges.

On the NAMIWalks website, the nationwide events are described as a walk that has no finish line … only countless new beginnings for the people the grassroots organization serves through free life-changing programming.