NAMI Arapahoe/Douglas Counties recently completed its first ever NAMI Basics class in Colorado. We had 9 family participants led by 2 of our dedicated volunteer trainers. Many thanks to all of them for their efforts in a successful completion. Devoting 6 weeks to gain invaluable information is quite an undertaking. Julie was an attendee of this first class and she shared her initial review of this class in an earlier blog post. Below are a few of her thoughts after the conclusion.
“NAMI Basics…I can’t believe the 6 weeks is over! My husband and I completed the course together. We got to know the other family members in the room and built a support system through our time together as we shared our concerns and challenges. We learned more about mental illness and how the brain works. We gained the ability to better identify symptoms of mental illness and recognize these in our children. We learned the value of keeping detailed records to better partner with treatment providers to help our children. And ultimately, we learned that these things are not our fault or our children’s fault. We learned to ask ourselves in difficult moments, “What mental illness has my child?” so we can keep a proper perspective and be our child’s best advocate.
I highly recommend this course to anyone who has a child with mental illness. This a tremendous class that will provide you with an abundance of information and resources as well as support.”
This course is rich with information for those of you who have a child or young adult that has a diagnosis or presenting symptoms of mental illness. Stay tuned for future upcoming NAMI Basics classes in early 2016.