Mental illness doesn’t only affect the person who has it. It affects everyone around them, especially their caregivers. And those caregivers need support, too.
MHAOhio’s Family Advocate program was developed to be a support to families. The program can provide insight into mental health system navigation, a listening ear, and connection to resources.
In 2023, the Family Advocate’s goal was to serve 30 participants. By the end of the year, they more than doubled their goal. They had served 62 people.
The Family Advocate program was born in 2019 thanks to the vision of MHAOhio’s Family Advocate lead volunteer, Ed Desmond. A retired mental health clinician of over 40 years, Ed saw how much support families needed and how little they received. He approached MHAOhio with the idea of a peer-led Family Advocate program that would be self-sustaining and outside of formal treatment.
“Everyone told me ‘do what you love,’ and for me, this is it: helping families impacted by mental illness,” Ed said.
Family Advocate is part of MHAOhio’s Get Connected program led by Get Connected Program Director, LeeAnn Mattes, and Get Connected Program Manager, Hannah Davey.
“When a loved one with a mental illness is in crisis, the whole family is in crisis,” LeeAnn said. “Especially when the parent is the primary caregiver.”
The Family Advocate volunteers have lived experience caring for someone with a mental illness. They understand the frustration and overwhelm because they walked in the same shoes, and they have insight and knowledge to share. They know where to get resources and how to support someone with a mental illness.
“Family Advocate is more than hand-holding or a support group,” LeeAnn said. “It’s kind of like hands-on case management.”
Family Advocate offers support groups called Families in Touch, and Ed has collaborated with Erica Duncan, MHAOhio’s Support Groups Manager, to align the Voices Worth Hearing Support Group with the Families in Touch Support Group at Concord Counseling on the second Wednesday from 6-7 p.m. So, when someone with a psychotic spectrum disorder comes to the Voices Worth Hearing Support Group meeting, a family member can come to the Families in Touch group that meets at the same location at the same time.
“That’s been a really successful group,” LeeAnn said. “The group had to move to a different room to accommodate all the people that attended.”
If you’d like to learn more about when the Voices Worth Hearing and Families in Touch Support Groups meet, visit our website.
Families who benefit from the Family Advocate program can become volunteers themselves and help others. Jackie was a Family Advocate participant and is now a volunteer for the program.
“When you educate family members, give them the skills, and do it in a peer support manner, they will want to give back, and to help others,” Ed said. “That will keep plenty of new volunteers coming into the program.”
“What families need to know is that they are not alone. They can connect with other families who know what they’re going through because it can be isolating,” LeeAnn said. “When your child is in the hospital for schizophrenia, you don’t get a meal train from neighbors like you do if you had a baby or if someone is terminally ill. People aren’t sure who to talk to about it because there is still a stigma about mental health. So being able to open up and talk to someone who gets it, understands, and can provide guidance, support, and resources is like gold.”
If you or someone you know is in need of support from the Family Advocate program or would like to become a volunteer, please call us at (614) 242-4357 or send an email to familyadvocate@mhaohio.org.
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