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A Caregiver’s Perspective Most discussions of caregiving related to a crisis involving serious mental illness (SMI) start with a highly visible event or series of events. That is how it should be. That we should jump to rally around and support families who suffer...

Last week in our Caregiver Support meeting, I recalled a difficult time for our family when we were living in the throes of chaos and crisis. Due to my husband’s job loss in 2008, we had to let our dream home go to foreclosure. The following is from a blog-journal I...

Have you ever missed a standing meeting, and someone later asked if you were there? You realized they didn’t even notice you were gone in the first place. It seems worse than if you had been present. I mean, you really weren’t there, and they didn’t even notice that....

Thanks to so many of you, this will be our 5th year of providing gift cards to more than 14 group homes in our community that serve men and women with serious mental health challenges this Holiday Season! You rock! This year we would like to expand this effort. If you...

I get a general sense that most people I speak with want to “do something” about helping our seriously mentally ill neighbors. We see the people on our streets and we donate to homeless shelters or offer to volunteer and pass out food. These are good and obvious ways to respond, but how do we think about and move forward in terms of addressing the more daunting issue of isolation?

Sometimes the pain from battling a serious mental illness can be overwhelming. Whether you have a mental illness or love someone who struggles, it can feel like you are walking in complete darkness at times. Questions and confusion may swirl in your head each...

As the Fourth of July weekend draws near in this unsettling time, I am engulfed in a wide range of emotions. I don’t need to name all of the difficult circumstances we have faced as a nation these past few months, we are all experiencing pain from one degree to...

“Joker” begs the uncomfortable question, who was there for Arthur Fleck?

The following list is not meant to be a diagnostic tool and is not written by a medical professional. It is a collection of snapshots written from a mother’s perspective in an effort to help others.