NAMI San Francisco
Call 415-905-NAMI to register to find our next meeting.

Our San Francisco chapter is please to continue to offer this national
course "Family to Family". We have long recognized the great need to provide both families and individuals with current information about major mental illnesses.

This course is free and all materials are provided. Participants are requested to attend a 12 week class which is offered once a week. Class teachers are trained to lead this valuable class which provides current information about schizophrenia,bipolar disorder,panic disorder, borderline personality disorder,major depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Course material also covers medications, side effects and adherence issues. We strive to teach greater coping and communication skills for persons dealing with mental illnesses.

"Family to Family" creates and environment where we can come together and gain strength and knowledge to better help our ill loved ones and to advocate for their better care.

This course is offered two times a year and interested persons are invited to call the Nami Help Line and leave their name and contact telephone number and/or email addresses. Our next class will begin in September.

Read what others have to say about this dynamic class:

"Taking this class helped save my marriage and gave me the knowledge and support I need to help my son"

------------

"I thought I would have to struggle my entire life going it alone in dealing with my mother's mental illness and this class gave me greater communication skills and help me set boundaries in caring for my mother"

____________________________________________

Support Groups   These two support groups are offered for family and friends who are coping with mentally ill loved ones. These groups are not suitable for consumers or those persons diagnosed with  mental illnesses.

Second Wednesday of each month   at 1010 Gough Street San Francisco  6:30- 8 P.M. Family Service Agency

Tuesdays,San Francisco General Hospital  7th Floor 5:15 6:45 P.M.

There is no fee for these groups . Groups begin on time and are confidential

Family to Family offers:

• Learning about feelings and facts: The normative stages of emotional reactions to the trauma of mental illness; NAMI's belief systems and principles; individual goals for the family member with mental illness.
  
  
• Schizophrenia, Major Depression, Mania, Schizoaffective Disorder: Diagnostic criteria; characteristic features of psychotic illnesses; clinical treatment; dealing with critical periods in mental illness; keeping a Crisis File.
  
  
• Mood Disorders and Anxiety Disorders: Types and subtypes of Depression and Bipolar Disorder (formerly called manic depression); causes of mood disorders; diagnostic criteria for Panic Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; clinical treatment; sharing stories of the attendees.
  
  
• Functions of key brain areas: Research on brain abnormalities in the major mental illnesses; chemical messengers in the brain; genetic research; infectious and developmental factors involved in mental illness; the biology of recovery.
  
  
• Problem-Solving Skills Workshop: How to define a problem; how to solve a problem; setting limits.
  
  
• Medication Review: How medications work; basic psychopharmacology of the mood disorders, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia; medication side-effects; key treatment issues; stages of adherence to medications; early warning signs of relapse.
  
  
• Inside Mental Illness: Understanding the subjective experience of coping with a brain disorder; problems in maintaining self-esteem and positive identity; gaining empathy.
  
  
• Communication Skills Workshop: How illness interferes with the capacity to communicate; how to respond when the topic is loaded; talking to the person behind the symptoms of mental illness.
  
  
• Self-Care: Learning about family burden: Sharing in relative groups; handling negative feelings of anger, entrapment, guilt and grief; how to balance our lives.
  
  
• The Vision of Potential Recovery: Learning about key principles of rehabilitation and model programs of community support; local and other services available; a first-person account of recovery.
  
  
• Advocacy: Challenging the power of stigma; learning how to change the system, and how families unite together against this disability.
  
  
• Review, sharing and evaluation .

Call NAMI-San Francisco at 415-905-NAMI (905-6264) for information.