Online Support Groups for Family / Supporters
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More information on the Online Support Groups |
Introduction
The BC Schizophrenia Society is pleased to facilitate a series of online support groups for family members and supporters of persons with a mental illness. Funding for this project is provided by BC Mental Health and Addiction Services, an agency of PHSA. This project is part of HereToHelp.
These support groups are for people caring for a loved one who has or may have a mental illness or mental health. These groups welcome relatives and supporters including:
- Parents of children or adults
- Sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, daughters, sons, grandparents, in-laws….
- Wives, husbands, spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends and same-sex partners
- Chosen family, friends and roommates
The online groups are anonymous, private and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To link to the group, use: www.support.bcss.org
1)Public Family Forum This forum is for discussion among family members of persons with a mental illness and can be viewed publicly. You still need to register to post.
2) Support Group for Family and Friends of a Person with a Mental Illness – This group is more private, and you will need to register and log in to see or participate. It is a private place to discuss ideas and experiences with other family members.
3) Taking a Break from Caregivng & Self Care- Discussion on Strategies – This forum is public and is for family members to talk to one another about self-care ideas and strategies
4) Adult Children of Persons with a Mental Illness Support – you need to log in to see this private forum
5) Siblings of Persons with a Mental Illness Group – you need to log in to see this private forum
6) Support Group for Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Bisexual Supporters of a Person with a Mental Illness - This group is for persons who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, and who also are caring for a loved one or family member with a mental illness. It is a private online place to discuss ideas and experiences, to ask questions and to share resources and information with one another.
In order to read some of the groups and in order to post in any of them, you will need to be registered and logged in. Fortunately, this is easy. Just click on the ‘register’ link at top and follow the directions. If you get stuck at any point you can email the moderator.
If a group is ‘public’, meaning you can read the information there without logging in, it will say ‘public’ in the title. Once you log in, you can post a topic or question by clicking on the ‘new topic’ button, or reply to a post by clicking on the post you are interested in, and then clicking the ‘reply’ button. Your confidentiality is protected in several ways, firstly no-one but the moderator can see your email address, secondly, you don’t need to use your real name if you don’t want to. More on confidentiality below.
How To Get Involved / Confidentiality
In order to preserve the privacy of the groups (and to prevent spam) you will need to register to participate in any of these groups. To register, click on this link. (Make sure you answer the question in the first part of the registration screen, that helps verify you’re a person and not a spam robot.) You will need to provide your email address when registering, but no-one other than the moderators will be able to see it. You can view the descriptions of the various groups by clicking here.
Once you’ve registered for the group you will be able to log in and join the support group that suits you best. If you need help getting registered please email the moderator for help.
Note to group members and researchers: The posts in the support forums are private, belong to their authors and need to be respected as confidential. No permission is granted for any use of the support forums or the information within for anything other than personal support. Research enquiries or other announcements are not welcome and will be deleted from the support forums. Announcements may be posted in the Information area of the site.
Volunteers: The groups are new and the conversation is just starting up, so we invite you to introduce yourself and start a conversation on the groups to help get things going. We’re also looking for volunteers willing to be ‘greeters’ on the list – this low-commitment volunteer position would be to make a point of logging into the list once a week and posting or replying to posts to help stimulate discussion and welcome new members. Please email the moderator if you are interested in helping out in this way.
