NAMI’s Family to Family Program - Mental Illness Education, Support, Strategies and More

Have you ever wished there were a way to learn about your loved one’s mental illness, so that you can stop grasping at straws, making things worse, being always in the dark about what to do and how to cope?

This DOES exist - and it’s free.  It’s called Family-to-Family, offered by NAMI (The National Alliance on Mental Illness) - and they have tons of other resources as well.

https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/Mental-Health-Education/NAMI-Family-to-Family

This FREE course is offered by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) called Family-to-Family. Randye has also taught it countless times, and is one of the state trainers for Connecticut.  Mimi and Mindy were forever changed (in a good way) by taking it.

Our guest: Suzanne Robinson, Director, National Education Programs, NAMI - will tell us all about it.

We talk about:

What is NAMI? National Alliance on Mental Illness - how does it help people, families and professionals  dealing with mental illness?

Our stories: some increase in awareness of symptoms? Maybe.

Randye’s son Ben: “When I’m not on my meds, I wrestle with symptoms” - First time ever saying that - did he mean it?

Mimi and her son Nick (!)  on ABC news talking about his schizophrenia.

Suzanne’s story as a sibling   and child of someone with mental illness. We aren’t all parents.

What makes NAMI programs different?  -  Peer education approach (lived experience)

What is F2F? (Family-to-Family)? How did it begin? What is covered? How many have been helped?

The rapport   and support that happens and grows in the course of the 8 weeks. 

What changed with the new version (6th edition) released in early 2020

Is it now available online? - COVID and pivot to programs offered online

What other resources does NAMI have for families and people experiencing mental health?

Quotes:

“The lightbulbs went off for me in Family-to-Family...that moment when I really learned ‘oh my god, it’s not my son’s fault’ was so powerful.” - Randye

“My golden nugget was to learn what (my son) Jim still could do. “ - Mindy

“Some people want to talk about how they feel...others are like: give me the information so I can take action. Teach me something so that I have the background, the understanding and the growing empathy.” - Suzanne

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Randye Kaye
Mindy Greiling
Miriam (Mimi) Feldman