Nikyra McCann Elected Vice-President of NAMI-Dane County’s Board: Feeling Blessed to Be of Service
Nikyra McCann was recently elected vice-president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness - Dane County’s board.
By Jonathan Gramling
Nikyra McCann, recently elected NAMI-Dane County’s board vice-president, has come a long ways. McCann’s psychosis didn’t hit her until she was 20-years-old. It left her running down the street yelling before she was restrained by her mother. It was an illness that left her hospitalized, sometimes restrained in a bed and placed in isolation.
It was an illness that masked the creative, entrepreneurial spirit that McCann had, one that would be unleashed as she recovered from her illness. During her treatment through Journey Mental Health, McCann made a video about her mental health journey and rented space at the Market Square Theater to show it.
As she has progressed along her journey, she has wanted to continue sharing that journey with others to encourage them along their journeys as well. She has promoted her message through several vehicles. And in that entrepreneurial spirit, McCann founded Still Standing Enterprise, an LLC that allows her to spread the word and give support to others.
“I am offering workshops at the libraries and I will have given presentations at all of the libraries in Madison by the end of the year,” McCann said. “I have a series Standing in Stability. There are four segments. And now we are incorporating Building Self-Esteem with Journaling, Coping with Mental Illness, and Mindfulness with Journaling. They are going great and they are really helping people. It feels good to get out in the community and help others.”
McCann is proud of her office in Spaces on E. Washington Ave. It’s not a big space, but it suits her purposes as she provides service in public spaces and people’s homes.
Through a contract with Dane County CCS, McCann is providing a number of services to people who are on their mental wellness journey.
“Right now I have five clients through CCS,” McCann said. “We’re just starting it over. We just started a month ago. I’m helping them get the supportive services that they need. We provide rehabilitation services in six areas like medication management, and individual skill development.”
McCann’s calling has also led her to sit on NAMI’s and Housing Initiative’s boards.
“This is my fourth year being on the NAMI board,” McCann said. “It’s my second term. I’ve been voted in as board vice-president and I’m the chair of the advocacy committee for NAMI. I have just appreciated NAMI so much. NAMI has been a big piece to my recovery as well. They really gave me an opportunity to live out the things that I was thinking in my head. ‘I think I can do this.’ They actually gave me a chance to do it and believe in myself.”
As the chair of the Advocacy Committee, McCann is in the thick of things, advocating for policy changes and resources that will benefit people on their mental health journey.
“We’re really advocating for policy changes, advocating with legislators to change things, to shape things for the betterment of others,” McCann said. “Like with me, in my last crisis nearly six years ago, I was charged with felonies over a mental health crisis. That brought on so much trauma for me. Those are the things that we are hoping to advocate for others for. We advocate for more mental health services in schools, more housing and the decriminalization of mental illness.”
In McCann’s view, there needs to be more mental health education and services within the schools.
“I think it would have equipped me more for the world and what I was going to encounter as I got older,” McCann said. “I think it would have provided me with more knowledge. And it also would have helped my mental health in that instance because I was more knowledgeable on these things and would know how to think things through better.”
NAMI is also seeking to decriminalize mental illness. And that means an appropriate response from public officials when someone is having a mental health crisis.
“We are advocating for the decriminalization of mental illness,” McCann said. “One policy change is to not have police officers come to the scene when there is a mental health crisis because that can create an outrage within itself. Now they have the CARES team. The CARES team comes out and I think that needs to expand a little more in the community. There are some steps that are being made and I am grateful for the steps. I do believe that even though I had very traumatic mental health experience, I’m grateful for the resources that are here in the community because a lot of states don’t have a lot of resources like Madison and Wisconsin for mental health. I’m grateful for the things that were in place to help me. The CARES teams are trained so they know how to better handle crisis situations and encounters. The behavior criminal. It’s just happening because of the crisis that the person is undergoing. We all handle crisis in different ways.”
Housing stability, having a place one can call home, is also a big contgributor to mental wellness.
“Housing resources are key,” McCann said. “Housing first. If you have proper housing, if you have a place to lay your head, if you don’t have to worry about those stressors, that can really impact your recovery as well. I’m also on the board of Directors of Housing Initiatives. It’s an awesome organization. These resources can really help someone get better and get well. It gives people stability. If people with mental illness are provided the proper housing, that can be a key component to their wellness. Housing Initiatives is also for people who are homeless and have mental illness. They offer a broad range of housing for people.”
McCann feels fortunate to be where she is. For her, it isn’t about status. It’s about being in a position to help others on their journeys.
“I do feel empowered as the chair of the advocacy committee,” McCann said. “It’s really just to help. It’s not about being seen. It’s about what I have been through and my struggle and life. I really want it to be about change for people, being the best for them, seeing them overcome, from psychosis to recovery, going from hope to recovery to a better place in life.”
And as McCann helps other people with their journeys, it also helps her on her own journey.
“Every day, I’m getting better, learning something new, and going into recovery,” McCann said. “But now, I’m the best I have ever been. And I was just telling my mother last night that over my times of psychosis years ago, I feel like now I am in moments of just waking up to my reality, like my past life was all a dream and now this is my reality. It was a phase of psychosis. I am really waking up to my reality and I am grateful for my reality.”
And in living her life and helping others, McCann proves the stereotypes wrong as she continues to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams.
“I combat stereotypes by being a role model,” McCann feels. “That took getting myself together first before I could be a role model for someone else. It takes being true to the cause, being true to change, being true to the work of advocacy and mental wellness, being true to my story and I am overcoming and I want to help others overcome. It’s just really being true and doing the work and being true to the work also.”
As we sit in her office, McCann’s smile never leaves her face. She feels blessed to have overcome her mental illness and is eager to help others do the same.
“I’m really grateful with my life and what it has come to,” McCann exclaimed. “Every day, I am still going into that reality of my life, thinking back to isolation and being chained to a hospital bed. I am grateful for where I am. I’m going to keep going, keep moving, keep making a difference in the community, keep changing lives, keep inspiring others and always be a helping hand to someone. I know a lot of people fall through the cracks with their mental health circumstances. I’m just so grateful that I made it through.”
And due to McCann’s commitment, spirit and energy, others will make it through as well.
