Free Family Mental Health Education Program
Mental Health Association Offers 12 Week Course to Aid and Inform Families and Friends of Ill Relatives
A FREE program that moves families from despair and isolation to hope and empowerment as it offers education and support for family members of close relatives with the following illnesses:
- Major Depression
- Bipolar Disorder (formerly called Manic Depression)
- Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder
- Borderline Personality Disorder
- Panic Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Co-Occurring Brain Disorders and Addictive Disorders
Class members include parents, siblings, children, spouses, and significant others of persons with severe and persistent mental illness. It really does make a difference!
The series of 12 weekly classes is structured to help family members understand and support their ill relative while maintaining their own well-being. In addition to gaining knowledge about the above stated mental disorders, class members will be taught coping skills, such as handling crisis and relapse, and get information about medications, listening and communication techniques, problem-solving, recovery and rehabilitation, and self-care in the midst of worry and stress.
Each class member receives a 350 page course notebook. Over 115,000 people have completed this national course written by an experienced family member and mental health professionals. The course is taught by teams of trained volunteer family members who know what it is like to have a family member with a serious brain disorder. The program is sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Santa Barbara County as well as the California Department of Mental Health and the Santa Barbara County Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services. NAMI introduced this program in 1996.
Please call (805)884-8440 ext. 105 Mental Health Association in Santa Barbara County/NAMI for more information about this program. Registration required.
