The eighth annual NAMI Walk of Washington will take place this year on national Make A Difference Day — Saturday, Oct. 27. For the second year, the walk will be held at Marina Park in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, and the route will follow the scenic shoreline of Lake Washington.

NAMI Washington has moved the state administrative office from Lacey to Seattle. The new office is in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood, at 7500 Greenwood Ave. N., on the third floor of Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church. Meanwhile, Rebecca Thompson, the office manager in Lacey since 2008, is expanding her work with NAMI-Thurston/Mason and is staying in Lacey. And Lisa Utter, who has been our contract public policy coordinator since November, is taking on the program/office manager role in the new office.

Video: Former King County Executive Randy Revelle recently appeared on KING-TV's "New Day Northwest" to discuss his struggle with mental illness as a prominent politician.

Margaret Larson's Seattle talk show "New Day Northwest" is tackling the topic of mental illness on a monthly basis.

Individuals who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder may be eligible to participate in a research study at the NIH clinical Center in Bethesda, MD. The purpose of this study is to identify genes that may contribute to the development of bipolar disorder (manic depression), and related conditions. Bipolar disorder is a common and potentially life-threatening mood disorder. The tendency to develop bipolar disorder can be inherited, but this is poorly understood and probably involves multiple genes.

When I first heard about a 12-week course called Family-to-Family for relatives of people with serious mental illness, I wasn't sure I wanted to take it.