Resiliency and the Need for Community in Mental Health

Resiliency is an important concept for families dealing with a mental illness. Resilience is defined byResiliency Initiatives, a Canadian website about resiliency, as: "the capability of individuals and systems (families, groups and communities) to cope with significant adversity or stress in ways that are not only effective, but tend to result in an increased ability to constructively respond to future adversity. Lifton (1994) identified resiliency as the human capacity of all individuals to transform and change, no matter what their risks; it is an innate 'self-righting mechanism.'"

One of the keys for families to be able to build resiliency is for them to be connected to a community of care. What does this mean? It means that often families feel isolated when dealing with a child or family member with a mental illness. This isolation leads to a lack of resiliency. A lack of being able to quickly overcome crises and problems they are faced with while caring for loved ones. This, as well as the stigma around mental health, often leads to further isolation. This isolation leads to prolonged pain and crisis.

But a community of care is a team of individuals, agency workers, and school personel, gathered around a family to help them overcome the crisis or problem and move forward. An important part of this team is often other parents who have been through similar issues. Peer support in many cases proves to be one of the most important components of a community of care.

If parents who have been through this, let's call them parent advocates, are available and able to help others who are facing issues they have already faced then we add significantly to a community of care. Agencies are beginning to recognise the value of these parent advocates as are schools and governments local, provincial and national. It is through the use of parent advocates that we can expand the community care.

This website, like a number of others such as Parents for Children's Mental Health, is in part a response to the need to expand and make it easier for families to access a community of care and increase their resiliency.

We are fortunate in the London area to have Dr. Wayne Hammond present a workshop about resiliency for parents onApril 23, 2009, 7:00-8:30pmfor Parents/Guardians. The workshop will be held atCarousel Room, Western FairThis workshop is free. To register please RSVP toCindy Evans –c.evans@ldcsb.on.ca 519-663-2088 Ext. 40008

Comments

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Absolutely right!
It really a becomes very much tough to co operate for the family when there is mentally ill
person in the family.The support of the community is much needed in such a cases.