Course helps families coping with mental illness

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For family members coping with a loved one with a mental illness, now is the time to register for a 12-week family education course to help with that process.

Nancy Grimes and Priscilla Haley will conduct this most important program beginning with the first meeting from 6:15 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, in the Osprey Room at Acadia Hospital on Stillwater Avenue in Bangor.

Offered through the National Alliance for Mental Illness, the course will be presented “in a nurturing and safe environment,” Grimes explained.

“Every class discussion is confidential,” Grimes wrote.

“At the end of each class, people have at least 10 pages of free text material to take home with them. In the end, they have a fact-filled textbook to refer to.”

Weekly courses cover bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

“We discuss psychiatric medications and their side effects; biology of the brain and new brain research; self care; what to do in a crisis; problem-solving techniques and how to communicate when someone is delusional,” Grimes wrote.

And while doctors and mental health specialists are invited speakers, 95 percent of the instruction is provided by NAMI volunteers.

“Our philosophy is that if the normal person can understand the difficult, mental health materials enough to teach it, so can everyone who needs to take the class: Families teaching families. It’s a unique way for people, with experience, to teach others who need it, and it works great,” Grimes wrote.

Grimes points out this course is the first and only extensive course taught just for families; is taught by NAMI volunteers throughout Maine; is offered twice a year in Bangor; and has educated about 200 families in 12 years.

“This course changes the lives of the participants,” Grimes wrote.

“They learn they are not alone in dealing with these tragic and tough illnesses.

“Parents enter our class feeling burned out and at their wits end. They leave our class feeling hopeful, empowered and ready to continue their care giving.”

To register, call Grimes, 223-5686, or Haley, 942-3848.

For more information, call the NAMI help line at 800-464-5767.

According to its Web site, AARP is a membership organization “leading positive social change and delivering value to people age 50 and over through information, advocacy and service.”

If you are 50 or older, and would like to know more about this organization and what it can do for you, you are invited to attend the monthly meeting of the local chapter of AARP at noon Tuesday, March 25, in the meeting room of the Elks Lodge at 108 Odlin Road.

Lewis Bailey called to report that the speaker for this meeting will be a representative of the Eastern Area Agency on Aging Meals for ME program.

“We will also have an in-house mini-auction, and people should bring a bag lunch,” he added.

For more information about this meeting, and the local chapter, call Bailey at 947-0608.

For more information about AARP, visit www.aarp.org.

Because the Bangor Art Society’s February meeting was canceled, Leigh Butler reports that the Michael Vermette workshop has been rescheduled and will now begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, in the upstairs meeting room of the Bangor Public Library at 145 Harlow St.

“As always,” Butler wrote,” the public is invited to participate.”

Vermette “will demonstrate his unique wash techniques on paper, and lead a workshop using 100 percent coffee to paint the image,” she explained.

Attendees who want to participate “are encouraged to bring a photo, or sketch, from which to paint their image.”

For those interested in the society, the organization meets at 6 p.m. every fourth Tuesday of the month at the library, and is always interested in greeting new members.

Patricia Estabrook, co-director of The Game Loft, Belfast’s downtown youth center, wrote to thank all the individuals and businesses for their support of its 10th anniversary celebration.

Among those who helped make this special event a success were Thom Roberts, Walter Ash, Susan Longley, Jayne Crosby Giles, The Colonial Theatre, Zoe’s Bakery, Hannaford, Dairy Queen, Opera House Video “and the many game companies that supplied door prizes,” Estabrook wrote.

“The Game Loft serves the community by providing non-electronic games and youth development services for young people,” after school, Monday through Saturday, she explained.

For more information about this organization, call 338-6447.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; javerill@bangordailynews.net; 990-8288.