Support offered familes coping with mentally ill

Submitted by NAMI Kane County North

NAMI Kane County North will sponsor the NAMI Family-to-Family Education Program specifically for families and friends of persons diagnosed with a serious mental illness.

The 12-week series will be held from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturdays, Sept. 15 to Dec. 1, (no class on Nov. 24-Thanksgiving weekend).

The classes will be held in the St. Mary’s room at Provena St. Joseph Hospital, 77 N. Airlite St., Elgin.

The course will cover information about schizophrenia, the mood disorders (bipolar disorder and major depression), panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder; coping skills such as handling crisis and relapse, basic information about medications; listening and communication skills, recovery and rehabilitation, and self-care around worry and stress.

The course is designed specifically for parents, siblings, spouses, teenage and adult sons and daughters, partners and significant others who are caregivers of persons with a severe and persistent mental illness. This course is taught by trained family members who have lived with this experience. Many families describe the impact of this program as “life changing”, and there have been more than 200,000 participants in this course in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Italy.

The NAMI Family-to-Family Course has been deemed evidence-based, and is offered free. All course materials will be provided.

Registration is required, and class size is limited. For information, call Lachell Jeffries-Hanson at (224) 325-8838 or Laurie Huske at (847) 695-7957.