Mental Illness Focus of NAMI Family Class

MIDDLEBURY - The National Alliance on Mental Illness is offering a 12-week Family-to-Family education course for family caregivers of individuals living with serious mental illness.

The curriculum-based course covers a range of topics, including participants' emotional responses to the impact of mental illness on their lives, current information about many of the major mental illnesses, current research related to the biology of brain disorders, and information on the evidence-based treatments that are most effective in prompting recovery.

The course is led by volunteer teachers who themselves are family caregivers of an individual living with serious mental illness.

Through a variety of skills-building exercises conducted over the 12 sessions, participants gain empathy by understanding the subjective, lived experiences of a person with mental illness; learn new techniques for problem solving, listening and communicating; acquire strategies for handling crises and relapses; learn methods for coping with worry and anxiety and receive guidance on locating appropriate supports and services within the community.

The next course will meet from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursdays beginning September 8 at the Middlebury Senior Center, 1172 Whittemore Rd.

Those wishing to register for the upcoming program may call Carolyn at 203-819-2637 or 203-528-4876.