KNIGHTDALE —The shattered fragments of her father’s thoughts cut a rift in Renee Sallee-Dixon’s family. “I remember as a 13-year-old how devastating that was to me,” said Sallee-Dixon, who is bringing the coping skills for her father’s schizophrenia and other mental illnesses to Knightdale. On April 17, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-Wake County will hold its first support group in Knightdale, one of only four such groups in the Triangle, said Gordan Gogola, NAMI’s state support group trainer. The group will meet at Knightdale Baptist Church and its creation is designed to make attendance convenient for residents of eastern Wake County and eastern North Carolina. Sallee-Dixon, a Las Vegas native who now lives in Raleigh, and Jeanne Harris, of Raleigh, are the leaders. This group is for families or friends of those who are mentally ill or for those who want to learn about mental illness, Gogola said. In May, NAMI-Wake plans to start another support group in Knightdale for people with mental illness. “It’s like walking through egg shells,” Gogola said of interactions with the mentally ill without education. The family support group not only helps families and friends understand their loved one, but helps them learn how to cope with the implications of the illnesses on their lives. “My father works, drives, takes his medication. He’s a success story,” said Dixon. But her family wasn’t as fortunate. Sallee-Dixon said her father left for Cleveland, Ohio and his parents’ home to get better, leaving her family to pick up the pieces. “If my family had something like this, we would have benefitted greatly,” she said. She learns how to help her mother and siblings today by attending a NAMI support group, she said. NAMI support groups also help people with mental illness put the pieces back together. They provide life-supporting information that can be given by a good therapist, Gogola said. But sometimes the information on how to manage illness is even heard for the first time in a NAMI group. “I had a woman come up to me and throw her arms around me, and say, ‘You don’t remember me but you saved my life,’ ” Gogola recalled. Harris said there is good news for families too. “Our family has recovered,” said Harris, whose nephew has schizo-affective disorder. “My nephew is working and he’s getting married.” Harris said her support group helped her entire family understand mental illness, which affects one in four adults in any given year. During the same time, one in 17 adults suffer from serious mental illness. “I’m also hoping with my involvement to raise awareness in the African-American community,” said Sallee-Dixon. You don’t have to be afraid, there is support.” There is no cure for mental illness, but drug therapy, psychotherapy and lifestyle changes can help those with the disease live full lives, said Gogola. “The good news is it’s 100 percent treatable and you can maintain a high quality life if treated in time,” he said. Most doctors and scientists believe mental illness is caused by a combination of genetics and environmental factors. NAMI-Wake holds education meetings in Raleigh on everything from ground-breaking case studies to information on what public assistance is available for treatment for those without private health insurance. “I can imagine how many teenagers are out there with a family member struggling struggling with mental illness,” Sallee-Dixon said. “If I can help, I definitely want to do that.”

(Contact Staff Writer Denise Sherman at 269-6101 or dsherman@nando.com.)