NAMI CONTRA COSTA
Contra Costa's Voice on Mental Illness

NAMI Contra Costa
P.O. Box 21247
Concord, CA 94521

(925) 465-3864
xnamicc@aol.com

Family to Family


family to family

Have you taken the free, 12 week Family-to-Family course? It is offered at several locations throughout the county. The course covers the symptoms and treatment of major mental illnesses, as well as skills to help family members communicate with and advocate for their loved one(s) more effectively.

Call Marie Overby at 925.284.5240 or e-mail her at mfoverby@yahoo.com.

A Message from Program Director Joyce Burland:
Goals of NAMI's Brand of Family Education

This fall the NAMI Family-to-Family Education course celebrates its twelfth year in the field. Developed by NAMI-Vermont in 1990, the course is now taught by over 2,000 trained NAMI volunteers in 43 states, four large municipalities, and two provinces of Canada. To date, 50,000 family members have graduated, and the project is constantly expanding across the nation. As one commentator on the NAMI scene said to me, "Wow! This program has really got legs!"

I appreciated the show-biz expression signifying that public enthusiasm and word-of-mouth can give wings to a project when it is "right for its time" and touches a submerged human need. Such is the case with NAMI's family education program-the first in this century to reach out to thousands of family members on a continuing basis, the first to fully acknowledge the trauma and heroism in their lives, the first to lead family caregivers through pain and stigma to emotional understanding, clinical insight, healing and action.

The NAMI Family-to-Family Education Program entrusts education to NAMI members who are, by any measure, the most advanced self-educated lay population in modern medicine. The goals of this peer program are radical; they go far beyond the traditional curriculum of illness information and behavioral training. Although the course is rich in clinical detail, our primary mission in education involves orchestrating a transformation from personal devastation to action and power.

To serve this end, we have over the years defined our own brand of family education. Here are the specific features of the course that families tell us are life-changing:


EMOTIONAL UNDERSTANDING AND HEALING (PERSONAL REALM)

  • Guaranteeing a safe, protective place where family members can debrief the traumatic events and feelings they have experienced (Speaking Pain).
  • Teaching the specific guideposts of the emotional process traumatized people go through in their process of adaptation and recovery (Normalizing).
  • Creating a group-bonding process that will encourage candid self-disclosure (Coming Out).
  • Helping family members understand the subjective experience of their relative with a mental illness (Empathic Identification with the Victim).
  • Providing teachers who have borne this personal trauma and have "come through" (Modeling).
  • Showing the way to put living-with-trauma into a life perspective that fosters self-care and self-realization (Restoring One's Own Life-Line).

POWER AND ACTION (SOCIAL REALM)

  • Encouraging family members to recognize and express their anger at discrimination and stigma (Breaking the Silence).
  • Providing a premeditated, detailed "informational overload" regarding the neurobiological aspects of brain disorders to disconfirm learned stereotypes about mental illness (Consciousness Raising).
  • Modeling peer mastery of basic biomedical knowledge (Empowerment).
  • Introducing and practicing new coping and communication techniques (Assertiveness and Skill Training).
  • Releasing family members, through group support and mutual affirmation, from the gross misperception of their experience (Liberation).
  • A fostering self-respect and pride in families as exemplars of courage, strength, and perseverance (Solidarity).
  • Showing families a way to join the fight against social injustice by linking them with family advocacy groups on the local and national level (Activism).

Tuesday Support Group

The First Tuesday Support Group is now in its 10th year of helping people. It is a very effective resource that can organize you and send you in the direction you need to help your loved one.

E-mail your questions to:
xnamicc@aol.com
You will be assured of an answer when the group meets.

Location:
Hillcrest Congregational Church
404 Gregory Lane
Pleasant Hill
Time: 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm
For more information please contact:
Dave Kahler at xnamicc@aol.com or
925-676-5771



Join NAMI-CC Today

If your family has a problem with mental illness,
JOIN NAMI-CC TODAY!
You will get information, education and support
.Now!

NAMI-CC is effective and immediate. Download the application form, send it by e-mail or snail-mail, and you will have put a process in motion that will change the life of you and your loved one
...forever!



New Hope Support Group

Support group meets on the second Monday of the month at 7pm

Lafayette Orinda Presbyterian Church
49 Knox Drive, Lafayette

Membership in the support group is free and open to the community.