Jewish Community Mental Health Project Offers New Services for Families

The Jewish Community Mental Health Education Project (JCMHEP) and Jewish Family Services are pleased to offer support services for those who have a family member with a mental illness.

The NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Family-to-Family class is a free 12 week course for families and friends of individuals with serious mental illness.  The curriculum discusses the clinical treatment of these illnesses, medications, and current research, as well as the coping and advocacy skills that family members need.  For the first time, the class is being offered by the Jewish Community Mental Health Education Project (JCMHEP) in cooperation with NAMI and will be held at a Congregation Shalom in Fox Point, beginning in early 2007.  The class is taught by trained family members.  For information, please call Barbara Beckert at 414-390-5718. 

Jewish Family Services offers free support groups to provide support, networking and resource-sharing opportunities for parents who have a child with a mental illness.  Others who have a family member with a mental illness, such as a parent or sibling, are also invited to participate.  The support groups are facilitated by Melanie Wasserman, MSW, who is a caring, knowledgeable, and empathetic facilitator.  For more information, call Melanie at 225-1379.