For immediate support please join one of our online family support groups. To speak to someone about information, support and resources in your area please contact BCSS at 1-888-888-0029 or call the coordinator in your area.

Calendar of training, support and other events in BC  Our online calendar at www.calendar.bcss.org contains support groups, training and events for people with a mental illness and their family and supporters. It is updated regularly and includes events and resources from all over British Columbia.

Online Support Groups for Family / Supporters The BC Schizophrenia Society and the Mind Foundation are pleased to announce the launch of a series of new online support groups for people caring for a loved one with mental illness. The groups are anonymous, private and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (volunteer opportunities are available as well)

Family Respite Program The Family Respite Program provides a modest amount of funding to families to pay for activities or services to help give family members helping their ill relative a break or rest. As families are all different, each family is helped to come up with a respite plan that works for them. Please click on the link above for more details.

Reach Out Concert and Education Program for Youth A fun and interactive performance that aims to educate young people about this brain illness while having a good time.

Partnership Education Partnership Education is based on a personal storytelling model. It is a unique and powerful presentation that helps people in the community to understand the nature and prevalence of chronic and severe mental illness.

Kids in Control Support Group Program The Kids in Control Support Group Program gives information, education and support to children eight to thirteen years of age who have a parent with a serious mental illness.

Strengthening Families Together Do you have a relative or friend with a serious mental illness? Strengthening Families Together is a 10-session group for families and friends, which provides information, skill-building, and support.

B.R.I.D.G.E.S. Education and Support Program BRIDGES is a course taught by consumers for consumers. BRIDGES helps people learn things that will help them in their journey to recovery. People who have taken the course find it helps them to be part of their own treatment. In the course, students learn about psychiatric diagnoses. They also learn about what mental health treatments work best.

Partnership Puppeteer Program A puppet show that educates grade 4/5 students in order to give them accurate information and to dispel the myths and misunderstandings about mental illness.

Family Support Buddy Program The program matches volunteers with persons who are family members of persons with a serious and persistent mental illness. The volunteers, who are also family members of a person with a mental illness, provide peer listening and some information during a weekly phone call or visit. The program is now underway in selected regions of BC and is being looked at for implementation as far away as New Zealand.