{"id":5941,"date":"2017-05-31T20:27:41","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T03:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=5941"},"modified":"2025-12-03T20:28:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T04:28:20","slug":"when-a-loved-one-is-diagnosed-with-a-mental-health-condition-tips-for-family-and-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2017\/05\/31\/when-a-loved-one-is-diagnosed-with-a-mental-health-condition-tips-for-family-and-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"When a Loved One is Diagnosed with a Mental Health Condition: Tips for Family and Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Jeanne Nelson]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As an active leader in the South Lake Tahoe chapter of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, I work closely with family members who have loved ones with mental health issues. For many, one of the hardest times was learning about their child, partner, or friend\u2019s diagnosis and not knowing what do next. Some were shamed for not addressing their loved one\u2019s needs sooner and others were told they were too protective or doing too much.<\/p>\n<p>I have been in this same position as a parent and unsure what to do for my adult child. Based on what I have learned and heard, here are few tips about what to do after you learn about your loved one\u2019s symptoms or diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rteindent1\"><strong>1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Avoid the blame game.<\/strong>\u00a0Mental illness is not someone\u2019s fault. Avoid blaming yourself or others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rteindent1\"><strong>2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Get informed.\u00a0<\/strong>Learn all you can about your loved one\u2019s diagnosis. Seek out ongoing educational opportunities to stay abreast of brain research and discoveries.\u00a0It is important to keep current on brain science to the same degree as behavioral science.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rteindent1\"><strong>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Keep the communication lines open between you and your loved one.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0NAMI has many resources, including Family-to-Family program available in South Lake Tahoe, with suggestions for best communication practices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rteindent1\"><strong>4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Know the resources available.<\/strong>\u00a0Familiarize yourself with resources and services in the community. Visit one of the six Mental Health resource kiosks in South Lake Tahoe or find an in-depth list of services on\u00a0<u><a>bartonhealth.org\/behavioralhealth<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rteindent1\"><strong>5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Find a community of support.<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s not just about getting help for your loved one, but also for you!\u00a0 Attend the NAMI Family Support Group at the South Lake Tahoe Library on the second Tuesday of each month from\u00a06 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rteindent1\"><strong>6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Avoid hiding. The more we talk, the more we learn, and the more we reduce the sigma.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Imagine how we would think about mental health if we assumed all our children, colleagues, or neighbors had a mental health condition.\u00a0 Maybe we would be more proactive in getting timely healthcare and supporting prevention education.\u00a0 We might focus less on \u201cwhat ifs\u201d and more on solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeanne Nelson] As an active leader in the South Lake Tahoe chapter of NAMI, the National Alliance on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","darknews-slider-full":"","darknews-featured":"","darknews-medium":"","darknews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/News\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5941"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5942,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5941\/revisions\/5942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}