What is NAMI Family-to-Family?
Updated: Aug 3
Supporting someone with a mental health condition can feel confusing, isolating, and overwhelming. You may wonder how to help your loved one while also caring for yourself.
NAMI Family-to-Family offers education, practical tools, and connection for people navigating that experience.
What is NAMI Family-to-Family?
NAMI Family-to-Family is a free, eight-session educational program for family members, significant others, and friends of people living with mental health conditions.
The class is led by NAMI-trained family members who understand what it is like to support someone they love. Through presentations, discussions, and interactive exercises, participants learn more about mental health conditions and develop skills they can use in everyday life.
NAMI Family-to-Family is also a designated evidence-based program. Research shows that it can improve the coping and problem-solving abilities of people closest to someone with a mental health condition.
What Will You Learn?
During the program, participants explore topics including:
Communicating and solving problems effectively
Supporting a loved one with compassion
Managing stress and caring for yourself
Finding and using local services and resources
Preparing for and responding to a crisis
Understanding mental health conditions
Learning about current treatments and therapies
Recognizing how mental health conditions can affect the entire family
The Power of Shared Experience
Family-to-Family provides more than information. It creates an opportunity to connect with people who understand some of the questions, frustrations, and emotions that can come with supporting a loved one.
Participants can learn from one another, share experiences, and discover that they are not alone.
As one participant shared:
“The course gave me hope that it will be okay, that I am not alone and reduced a lot of shame, guilt and hopelessness.”
Is Family-to-Family Right for You?
This program may be helpful if you are an adult supporting a child, spouse, parent, sibling, partner, friend, or another loved one living with a mental health condition.
Whether this experience is new to your family or you have been navigating it for years, Family-to-Family can provide greater understanding, practical skills, and a supportive community.
NAMI Richland County offers Family-to-Family at no cost. Classes are scheduled throughout the year, and advance registration is required.
