Community members learn to facilitate family support groups

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), one out of four American adults suffers from a mental health disorder each year.  As the number of people affected by mental illness grows, so does the need for treatment.

James Neal of Enid News, wrote an article about National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)-Oklahoma providing free training services to people in the community who were interested in learning more about group therapy and helping the people in their lives. 

NAMI says that this family support group training is design to teach family members and friends of those suffering from mental illness how to possess coping skills and to successfully facilitate a support group.  The goal is also for these people that attend the training to be able to reach out to other people going through the same thing and to share the skills they’ve learned.

Hopefully the people in Oklahoma will take advantage of this training program and the trend will continue throughout the country.  It would be beneficial for people to have as many resources as possible so they don’t feel like there’s nowhere to turn.

According to NAMI Massachusetts, this Support Group Facilitator Skills Training model is currently being utilized in 37 states.