Turn to others in your extended family for assistance. Ask them to take some partial responsibility for the care of your ill relative.

Find community supports to allow for your own respite. Consider friends, church social groups and now local authorities. Try to enlarge your network to identify caring people in your world whom you can turn to when you need a break. One of the worst consequences of stigma in mental illness is the way that it isolates families, and makes them feel disloyal when they divulge their ill families problems in order to ask help for themselves.

Continue to educate yourself. Knowledge is power.

Get supportive family consultation for yourself i.e. professional counselling for families.

Massage, meditation, prayer, exercise and relaxation tapes all help.

Would any reader have other tips to add to this list? Please share them with us by replying to this post!

Caring4Carers was formed in 2000 as Mencare by Jeffrey Breslaw in response to a need from people caring for a family member with mental illness.

You can find out more about the organisation, and a course named Supportive Family Training, by using the site. 

If you have any questions about this site and the content on it, please don’t hesitate to contact us.