Here's an article for families with a loved one who is dealing with an addiction, "10 tips to help family members of addicts cope." We especially like the way the article aims to manage the strains while maintaining family relationships.

If you care for someone with a mental illness, you know communication plays a vital role in supporting them, but you also know how difficult it can be to figure out the right things to say. This handout offers advice on active listening and responding to your loved one with kindness and understanding. There are […]

Psychosis or psychotic episodes can be very difficult for caregivers to know how to handle in just the right way. This article offers family caregivers some practical approaches and tips, "Helping Someone with Schizophrenia: Overcoming Challenges While Taking Care of Yourself."

One of the thinnest tightropes that family caregivers navigate is encouraging a loved one to seek mental health treatment. The stakes are high, the subject is touchy, and years of stressful family dynamics inevitably come into play. In this podcast, "Savvy Psychologist" Dr. Ellen Hendriksen gets some great advice from mental health advocate Gabe Howard [...]

In this Pew Research study, we learn about the fact-finding capabilities of family caregivers. Do you have these skills, too?

Learn communications strategies that can improve the relationship with your loved one and motivate change. These practical tips will help you to listen with empathy so that your loved one feels respected, listened to, and empowered to make positive changes.

Informing yourself about mental illness after a child develops signs of mental illness is job-one for parents. Finding support, connecting with local resources, and tending to the feelings of family members come next. This guide covers a lot of ground of interest to parents, "Coping with Mental Illness for Caregivers."

You can learn a lot in this free online course, including how to address your own feelings, strategies for dealing with a loved one who is experiencing substance use problems, and insight into things you can control.

Has it occurred to you that emotions are running high? Does your loved one overreact, use threats, or otherwise create a lot of conflict in the family? This slide presentation, De-escalation Skills, explains escalation, identifies the warning signs of a major conflict, and presents strategies that you can learn to resolve conflict. There is also [...]

It's not always easy to be young carer, so strong emotions are bound to come up. Here is a long list of things you can try to bring those feelings into line, "How to handle strong emotions".

Here is a book that offers a new approach to "Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening." The book guides family caregivers in a step-wise approach to, 1) Improve the quality of their own lives and, 2) Learn how to make treatment an attractive option for the substance abuser.

We love this advice about supporting a loved one on their recovery journey. This article reminds caregivers that recovery is a learning process for everyone. Start by asking questions, to learn about your family member’s goals and concerns, and be there to accept their decisions and support their progress.

If you are not sure how to help a loved one with suicidal thoughts, the "Suicide Prevention Coalition of Champlain East" can be a good place to start. Learn about strategies to prevent suicide, ideas for where to get help, and how to reach out and find useful resources. There is also a course in [...]

Your support is important when a loved one has schizophrenia but it's not always easy. This article may help to keep you on the road to recovery, without losing sight of your own needs and goals in life, "Helping someone with schizophrenia: Overcoming challenges while taking care of yourself."

If you are concerned about the well-being of a family caregiver in your life, this article offers some advice: "How to be a good friend to a caregiver."

Want to strengthen your relationship with a child who is struggling with mental illness or addiction? Learn about mastery, observations, feedback, and emotions in "Resilient Kids: How Can Parents Help?"

In this straight-talking article by a couple who have experienced life with a loved one suffering from a mental illness, you will discover the lessons they learned along the way, "Personal Stories: How To Love Someone With A Mental Illness."

Your loved one has a problem addiction and you think it’s time for rehab. As hard as you have tried, you cannot get your loved one to accept rehabilitation as the solution to a chronic problem with alcohol, opioids, cocaine, cannabis, inhalants, kleptomania, pyromania, gambling, food, cutting, shopping, or exercising. You need a new approach [...]

Identifying obstacles to recovery can sometimes make the process easier to manage. Read about common obstacles and some of the solutions in this article, "Identify barriers to recovery".

For my wife Terry and I, the holiday weekend in August of 2004 was probably the saddest one of our lives. Our son had had a very rough year at university in New Brunswick. His grades had nosedived, and campus life was increasingly a struggle. He had been treated for depression since he was ten. [...]

This 30-page booklet, Navigating a mental health crisis, will help you understand what to expect in a mental health crisis. Discover what you can do to support a loved one through a serious mental health event. Discover how to prepare for a crisis, before it happens, including advice for engaging emergency care services when necessary.

As the first line of defense, parents can have a significant influence over a child's decision to avoid drug/substance use but you will need to keep the dialogue running. Learn how, Drug Free Kids.

Parenting a child with mental health issues is hard work. Here are 12 tips that may help you to meet the emotional challenges of being a caregiver.

With a focus on the topic of recovery, this toolkit will be helpful to patients, their family members and caregivers, and healthcare professionals who are seeking to better engage patients and families in the recovery process.

Resilience is the ability to weather stress and overcome obstacles. This resource explains how people tend to bounce back after bad news, and offers advice that can help family caregivers improve their ability to keep things on a more even keel.

There are a number of boundaries to think about when you are a family caregiver. Some boundaries need to be set for yourself, some for your loved one, and others for your family. Only you can know what the boundaries should be ... and if you can carry through with the consequences that you set [...]

Caregivers and patients affected by stroke often have a lot of questions. These Sinai Health videos have answers on five topics. After explaining stroke, approaches to recovery, common communications problems, the videos deal with the most important needs of patients and their caregivers.

Caregivers will appreciate this 7-page article that deals with the topic of resilience in a sensitive and sensible manner.

Discover proven strategies, tools and resources that help people living with schizophrenia and their caregivers.

Family support can make a big difference to someone who is dealing with a mental health issue, but it’s hard for family caregivers to know what approach is best. Learn how to improve your skills to support your loved one on their road to recovery.

When a loved one is affected by a substance use disorder or mental illness, family caregivers eventually come face-to-face with stigma. What is stigma? Stigma is a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality or person. What to do? Start by getting to know the offending words ... and better alternatives. We found a [...]

Cannabis is a hot topic and it is more important than ever for parents to protect their kids’ health and development by addressing drug use early ... and often. For tips on how to approach this subject, see "Cannabis Talk Kit:  Know How To Talk With Your Teen."

What helps recovery? Explore the CHIME diagram to find out how connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment affect our loved ones experience through recovery.

What to do when you find yourself facing a communication breakdown "When a family member is unwilling to seek help?" This article may allow you to get your point across without making your family member feel defensive.

This information and advice is practical and will help caregivers to be effective in offering help to their loved one and getting the healthcare support they need.

Validation is a valuable tool in the family caregiver's repertoire. Imagine being on the receiving end of a constant stream of negative statements. Then imagine what it feels like to hear, “I appreciate how hard this is for you. I can see that you are really trying." It doesn’t take long to figure out that validating [...]