Webinar 59: What Family Caregivers Need from the Mental Health System
- Date
- -
- Access
- Open to the Public
- Presenter
- Susan Inman & Hardeep Thind
Learning Objectives:
1) Understand the family journey from a family caregiver’s perspective
2) Become aware of common difficulties families experience in interacting with the mental health system
3) Learn about services that families want for their family member
4) Realize in new ways how much your work can contribute to the well-being of people living with severe mental illnesses and family caregivers.
Description of the session:
Family caregivers are often the service providers who spend the most time with people with severe mental illnesses. However, some families experience is that mental health systems have had great difficulty in understanding their perspectives, both on what their family members need and what family caregivers need from service providers. Come hear some fresh points of view about how we can offer the best services.
Bio of Presenters:
Susan Inman is the mother of a daughter who has been living with a schizoaffective disorder for 18 years. Although once considered to have a refractory psychotic disorder, her daughter recovered from psychosis. She has enjoyed years of stability despite living with the ongoing difficulties of a severe mental illness.
Susan taught English and drama in a Vancouver secondary school for 25 years. She is the author of a memoir, After Her Brain Broke, Helping My Daughter Recover Her Sanity. She also writes about mental illness policies; here are links to archives of some of her articles:
www.huffingtonpost.ca/susan-inman/
https://thetyee.ca/Bios/Susan_Inman/
SESSION UPDATE
Welcome to Ms. Hardeep Thind who will co-present this session.
Hardeep Thind is an Educator with the British Columbia Schizophrenia Society (BCSS). BCSS is a non-profit organization founded in 1982 by families and friends of people with schizophrenia. Since then, BCSS has grown into a province-wide family support system. We are dedicated to supporting each other, educating the public, raising funds for research and advocating for better services for people with schizophrenia and other serious and persistent mental illness.
Hardeep has worked in the mental health field for the past 20 years, 18 of them with BCSS. Most recently, Hardeep moved from her role in the Fraser to the Vancouver Regional Team. Hardeep is also a family member of someone who has schizo-effective disorder, so she has been on both sides of the service and seen what a difference it makes for families to be included and supported in their loved ones’ journey!
(This webinar was originally planned to be co-presented with Dr Tom Conway, but he is in the process of changing employment. Therefore he will not be presenting. We wish him well and thank him for all his support!)