YES Youth Education Support

Lansing, MI, August 01, 2013 --(PR.com)-- NAMI Lansing is sponsoring a dialogue with Joanne Riebschleger, PhD, MSU School of Social Work, to discuss YES- Youth Education and Support on August 15, 2013 7:00 p.m. at the McLaren Educational Center on the Greenlawn Campus, corner of Greenlawn and Washington. YES is part of a greater initiative to support parenting roles of persons living with mental illness and their families. It also delivers straightforward information about mental illness, substance abuse, and recovery to children who have a parent or other family member with a mental illness.

Dr. Riebschleger, together with MSU co-investigators Dr. Deborah Bybee, Dr. Esther Onaga, and Social Work Visiting Scholar Betty Tableman, MPA, have support from the Gerstacker Foundation. The youth information on mental illness and substance abuse series is being delivered in grades 6, 7, and 8 of the Waverly School system. It was previously implemented at the Guidance Center, a community mental health contract provider in Michigan’s Wayne County.

Based on recommendations from the parent consumers themselves, a standard support group originally designed to examine psychoeducation needs of youth who have a parent with a mental illness was turned into a cutting edge program of peer-led parenting support for persons living with mental illness. It uses an empowerment model—to support consumer parents, their children, and other family members—to explore parenting and family needs of people with serious mental illness. The format and content of these groups is based on qualitative analyses conducted by Dr. Riebschleger of data drawn from four consumer parent focus groups.

A pilot study leading to this intervention, funded initially by the MSU Families and Communities Together (FACT) Coalition, is described in “Early Outcomes of a Pilot Psychoeducation Group Intervention for Children of a Parent with a Psychiatric Illness” in the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 3(2), 133–141.

The MSU School of Social Work, through the research of Joanne and her colleagues, has contributed to our knowledge of the stressors experienced by the children of parents with mental illness. We hope to work toward increased support for parents who can be positive caregivers for their children and that their children can benefit from the social support and information gained through peer-support groups.

Opportunity will be given for questions and support is available from other NAMI parents who will be attending.

Please contact NAMI Lansing 517 494 3404 for more information.