Upcoming Meetings
Family Sanity Parent Support Meetings
**Family Sanity Meetings are free thru March!
Evening "Zoom Room" Meeting for Parents of Teens & Young Adults
Support group meeting for parents of young adults (18+), facilitated by Certified Parent Coach, Sarah MacKay Lynch. Third Tuesday of the month.
Next Zoom Meeting: Tuesday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m.
SIGN UP HERE
Daytime Support Group Meeting for Parents of Teens & Young Adults
For parents of teens and young adults 18+
on the first Thursdays of the month.
**On Hiatus Thru May.
Will re-start in summer, likely as in-person group.
SIGN UP HERE
For More Information,
Please Contact: Lisa@familysanity.org.
Willows in the Wind On-line Parent Support Groups
Three Meetings Monthly.
For information and registration for upcoming meetings, please go to:
https://www.willowsinthewind.com/support-groups
SF Parent Support Virtual Support Group
More info on groups at namisf.org.
For a link to meetings, as well as to join their online parent community forum, please contact: natasha@namisf.org.
In the News...
"For Some Teens, It’s Been a Year of Anxiety and Trips to the E.R."
By Benedict Carey
New York Times, Feb. 23, 2021.
During the pandemic, suicidal thinking is up. And families find that hospitals can’t handle adolescents in crisis.
Surveys and statistics show that for young people who are anxious by nature, or feeling emotionally fragile already, the pandemic and its isolation have pushed them to the brink. Rates of suicidal thinking and behavior are up by 25 percent or more from similar periods in 2019, according to a just-published analysis of surveys of young patients coming into the emergency room.
For these teenagers, there aren’t many places to turn. They need help, but it’s hard to come up with a psychiatric diagnosis.
Finally, when a crisis hits, many of these teenagers end up in the local emergency department — the one place desperate families so often go for help.
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
DOES YOUR CHILD NEED HELP?
Emergency?
Stay Connected with Online Support Meetings
Parents of teens and young adults who are dealing with mental health issues may be having a more difficult time than others during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Family Sanity, along with Willows in the Wind and SF NAMI Parent Support, have joined together to offer six monthly parent support meetings, live online via zoom.com.
The groups originate in the Bay Area, but thanks to this online technology we have parents coming from all over the U.S. The groups are conducted by the organizations’ leaders or trained facilitators, as well as our certified parent coach, Sarah MacKay Lynch.
Information about how to join the groups here
Questions? Feel free to email Lisa@familysanity.org, or call
415-309-1001.
Article by Lisa Scimens, Family Sanity founder and director:
Sending Your Troubled Child Away:
It’s Never Easy,
But It May Be the Right Thing
This week I read a NYT book review of TROUBLED: The Failed Promise of America’s Behavioral Treatment Programs by Kenneth R. Rosen. A journalist who once himself attended a program, he discusses in the book four people who had negative and sometimes abusive experiences at three different programs, all of which are now closed.
As a parent of a young adult who attended two out-of-state programs to help her with her depression and anxiety, and as the subsequent founder of Family Sanity, I feel I need to speak out and say there are many good programs out there that do change lives.
It is our job as parents to seriously vet them ourselves and not leave the final decisions up to others whenever possible. Here, I offer some tips to make that decision wisely.
Resources for Families Coping with Anxiety During Covid
Below you can access some excellent internet resources for parents and teenagers and young adults to cope with the added anxiety of living during this pandemic.
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxiety/coronavirus-anxiety.htm
CRISIS TEXTLINE FOR TEENS/YOUNG ADULTS
Click Here to View More Resources
