Upcoming Meetings
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 Meetings:
December 20 at 7:00 pm
SIGN UP HERE
For More Information,
Please Contact: LisaScimens@gmail.com.
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.
- To sign up for a support group, go to: https://www.namisf.org/familysupport
- For a link to meetings, as well as to join their online parent community forum, please contact: lisaeltinge@aol.com.
Please Donate Today
Family Sanity is almost 9 years old. We have helped hundreds of families who have teens and young adults coping with mental illness. The non-profit organization is run by a very small staff of parent volunteers. We'd love to be able to expand our services, but our resources are limited.
As you may already know, our fundraising efforts at this point have mainly come from the sales of artwork created by Lisa Scimens, our founder (www.lisascimens.com). We are very grateful to a few very generous folks who have provided additional funding and we'd like to increase those funding sources.
If you value the work Family Sanity does, please make a donation by clicking the button above in the right hand corner or by sending a check to:
Family Sanity
855 Longridge Road
Oakland, CA 94610
Our tax ID is: 82-3381906
Special Event:
Autism Connect
Time & Location
Dec 05, 7:00 PM
Online Event, Zoom
About The Event
Do you have an older teen or a young adult with Autism?
Are you wondering what their options are after high school?
Is having them live at home getting more and more difficult?
Do you want to know about special programs or schools for them?
Are you wondering if there are services provided by your state that you should explore?
We will cover all this and more with a group of parents who have been down these roads.
Words from a Wise Woman
"Love Ambushes" is the theme of Delany Ruston, MD's recent Tech Tuesday Talk. She is the wonderful pediatrician/filmmaker/mental health advocate/mom who created the "Screenagers" videos about the impact of too much screen time on the younger generations.
In this blog, she talks about what she calls her unorthodox approach for helping young people with mental illness. I don't think of it as "unorthodox" at all. I have tried it in a limited way, like having a good friend take my daughter out to dinner when her dad and I are traveling. After reading this article, I know I need to reach out to more family friends to help. As the saying goes, it takes a village....
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
