Families for Depression Awareness tagged posts

You Care, Help Share During Mental Health Awareness Month

Families for Depression Awareness

For Mental Health Awareness Month, Families for Depression Awareness has launched #YouCareHelpShare, a campaign to provide education and encouragement to family caregivers. Through the distribution of caregiver education materials and a social media awareness campaign, we aim to help caregivers all across the U.S. get the support, information, and resources they need to be effective partners in care.

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When Primary Care Providers Treat Depression: Tips for Engagement

Susan Weinstein, JD
Editor in Chief, Care for Your Mind

Primary Care Providers (PCPs) are usually the first clinicians to treat a person’s depression. Family caregivers can enhance treatment outcomes by providing information to the clinician and support to the person living with depression. Families for Depression Awareness’ new video provides tips for working effectively with PCPs for the benefit of your loved one and your family.

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How to Help a Loved One with a Mood Disorder: The FFDA Action Plan

Valerie D. Cordero, Ph.D.
Co-Executive Director, Families for Depression Awareness

Many of us spend time with families over the holidays, giving us a chance to catch up and check in. When a loved one with depression or bipolar disorder declines to join in the celebration, is behaving uncharacteristically, or is facing a challenging situation, it may rightfully raise concerns among the rest of the family. If you want to work together to help your loved one, we have a strategy to offer: the Family Action Plan.

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Around the Horn: How Mental Health Organizations Have Recognized National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month 2018

Care for Your Mind

Care for Your Mind is extending its coverage of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month (NMMHAM) into August, recognizing that the issues of stigma and access to care aren’t limited to July. Read about how mental health organizations have been contributing to NMMHAM this year.

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My Mental Health Care on Base: A Perfect Storm

Sarah Davies Photo

Sarah Davies, Families for Depression Awareness Volunteer

I like to think that my issues with the mental health care on our Army post are the result of a perfect storm. I live with Bipolar II, which I know how to self-regulate for the most part. There are times, however, where either I know I need to check in or my primary care manager (PCM) recommends a visit. At our current duty station, I have seen both a psychiatrist and psychologist at the recommendation of my PCM. Both visits have left me wanting better care. The psychiatrist put me on an anti-depressant, which is contra-indicated for Bipolar as it can spin me into a manic state (which it did). I stopped taking the meds and asked to be seen by a psychiatrist to figure out a self-care plan without medication. I saw him one time—during which he allowed me to speak for maybe five minutes out of an hour. He asked for my background—during which I mentioned my college education—and he went off on a tangent about a woman he dated that went to my alma mater and how attractive the women there seem to be. My lack of confidence in his ability to listen to me, his one job, kept me from returning.

I mention all of this because I believed my bad experiences were just a result of those doctors not listening to me; like I said, a perfect storm of incompetence that I was unlucky enough to be part of. When I said that to my husband, he countered my assessment. It’s just a regular storm. It’s what too many spouses and service members face when they go to mental health [services].

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Surviving Severe Postpartum Depression

Susan Campbell
Families for Depression Awareness

I started dreaming about having a baby when I was a very little girl. I began babysitting at a young age and played with dolls for far longer than I care to admit. Being a mother was my life’s ambition. I never imagined that when I finally became a mother, I would have thoughts of hating my baby or wanting to hurt her or myself. But that’s exactly what happened and today I am truly grateful that we are alive.

I couldn’t have been more excited, less than three months after our wedding, to learn that I was pregnant. But it wasn’t the magical, transformative experience I’d imagined. It was a lot like turning a year older: you know something happened, but you don’t feel any different.

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The Worst Day of My Entire Life (So Far)

By Michael Rafferty
Families for Depression Awareness Volunteer

June 18, 1992 was the Worst Day of My Entire Life (so far). The parenthetical disclaimer is important, but more about that and the day itself a little later.

I am an extrovert. I’m quick with a joke, trending toward the irreverent or sarcastic but just as often self-deprecating. When someone needs help with something, I’ll offer mine. I will celebrate a colleague’s success–sometimes with suppressed envy but, among the Irish, envy is a high compliment.

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Welcome to Care for Your Mind

The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) and Families for Depression Awareness (FFDA) welcome you to Care for Your Mind!

The Care for Your Mind blog is ours—a place where all of us affected by the mental health care system can spark conversation among our peers, advocates, and thought leaders about the strengths and weaknesses of current mental health care practices and policies in the United States.

What’s vital to Care for Your Mind is you. The blog features regular contributions from a diverse group of policy makers, mental health experts, medical professionals, and health car...

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