Date: 2nd Thursday of every month starting May 10, 2012
Time: 6:30 – 8:00 pm
Place: Crawfordsville First United Methodist Church, 212 East Wabash Avenue, Crawfordsville, Indiana
Group type: For people with serious mental illness and family members and friends who have loved ones with serious mental illness
(I posted the following when we were training to become NAMI support group facilitators and added the information above as we geared up to actually start our support group.)
My wife and I and one of our neighbor friends spent part of our weekend in Lafayette, Indiana training to become NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) support group facilitators. We’re planning to start a support group in our town, Crawfordsville, Indiana later this spring and offer a Family-to-Family course in the fall.
I’ve been to several NAMI support group meetings in Lafayette (and Indianapolis when we lived there), and I’ve found them to be very helpful. Even when everything is going well in my family and I don’t really need the support, spending time with others who’ve struggled with mental illness in their families and having an opportunity to help someone by sharing the knowledge I’ve acquired over the years feels great.
The meetings always start and end on time, and the facilitators have been very good about giving everyone a chance to speak and not allowing any attendee to monopolize the meeting.
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rainingjupiter
8:14 pm on
March 20th, 2012Hello! I am going to school at Purdue and was considering joining a NAMI support group (this is my first time searching for help via the internet and I came across this), but am in a healthcare-related major and am afraid I will see fellow students volunteering in events, etc., as many of the students do help out, and that they will judge me. One of my best friends here is the head of one of these groups (I have no idea why), and she stopped talking to me when she found out I had a disorder. I am afraid of this rejection from other students. I should look more up about NAMI and related organizations, but have not the time recently- do healthcare professional students join these support groups to help out in NAMI?
Hi, rainingjupiter — NAMI-WCI (West Central Indiana) is an excellent organization with great people. I live 30 miles south of Lafayette in Crawfordsville, and NAMI-WCI in Lafayette is where I go for my Family-to-Family support groups.
Deciding whether to be out there about bipolar and other mental illnesses is a personal decision that carries some risks and benefits and requires courage. You may lose some friends and associates, you will certainly gain friends and associates — people you can be more open with — and some of the people you “lost” will come back. I think you will also gain insight and empathy, which will be very valuable as you pursue a career in the healthcare field.
Consider starting out gradually. Perhaps attend a support group meeting or call the NAMI-WCI office and schedule a lunch with one of its leaders. Discuss your concerns. See for yourself whether the organization is one you want to be associated with and gauge your interest in what you want to help out with, if anything. It took me more than ten years of getting help from NAMI before I was ready to volunteer. The fact that you’re already thinking of helping out puts you years ahead of me.
I wish you the best and hope our paths cross sometime in the future.
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