Family-to-Family
This 12-week course provides caregivers with communication and problem-solving techniques, coping mechanisms, and the self-care skills needed to deal with a loved one's mental illness as well as its impact on the family.
The course is aimed at helping families and friends of adults living with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, anxiety disorders and borderline personality disorders.
This course offers insights into, and resolution of, the profound concerns experienced by families, close relatives, and friends as they strive to cope with the realities of serious mental illness.
Caregivers not only learn a wide range of information about serious mental illness, they also learn to understand how living with these conditions affects their loved one.
Each course:
- Meets weekly for 12 weeks
- Is offered free of charge
- Is taught by trained NAMI family members who have relatives with mental illness
- Follows a structured format covering issues frequently faced by families dealing with
mental illness
The course teaches the knowledge and skills that family members need to cope more effectively.
- Attend with other family members just like you in a confidential setting.
- Gain insight into how mental illness affects your relative
- Take an eye-openings look inside some of the today's current brain research related to mental illness
- Learn how family members can become advocates for better treatments for their relatives
- Learn about the medication issues involved in mental illness and the latest treament options
- Learn how to cope with worry and stress; learn to focus on care for you as well as your loved ones
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Upcoming Training Sessions
Jan. 9 - March 26, 2012
Mondays, 6 - 8:30 p.m.
Location: Bourdini Center,
across from Fox Valley Technical College
March 6 - May 22, 2012
Tuesdays, 6:30 - 9 p.m.
Location: Fox Valley Technical College
Sept. 6 - Nov. 29, 2012
Thursdays, 6 - 8:30 p.m.
(no class on Thanksgiving)
Location: Fox Valley Technical College
This class is targeted for military families, though anyone is welcome.
Sept. 10 - Nov. 15, 2012 (tentative)
Mondays, 6:30 - 9 p.m.
Location: To be determined,
in Calumet County
To register, call (920) 954-1550, or
email Angel at angel@namifoxvalley.org
"The course gave me hope that it will be okay, that I am not alone, and reduced a lot of shame, guilt, and hopelessness. I see my wife now as someone who is ill and not as someone having a character flaw. The course helped me educate my children about their mother's illness and increased my compassion for my wife and others who have mental illness."
- Family to Family participant, California
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