Family Mental Health Support at Agape
Helping loved ones gain the tools and insight needed to support the healing process.
Mental health conditions impact not just those managing them, but also those closest to that person. The effects ripple outward into marriages, parent-child relationships, and into the family system, causing dynamics to shift and reorganize themselves around one member’s mental illness. Caregivers lose sleep. Children or siblings feel overlooked. Parents experience guilt they may not even know how to articulate. Extended family members offer good intentions that don’t necessarily work. Most families try their best, though they lack the necessary resources or knowledge to support each other.
Agape Behavioral Health recognizes that successful recovery isn’t a solo task. Those closest to someone in treatment are not observers, but participants in the environment that can either support or inhibit lasting recovery. That is why Agape offers a family mental health support program, not as an add-on, but as a central element of our overall treatment model.
What Is Agape's Family Support Program?
Agape’s family mental health support programs include both education and therapy that provide families with the opportunity to learn about what their loved one is going through, communicate effectively, and create an environment at home that supports recovery.
The programs provided by Agape are designed to meet the needs of all types of family arrangements, including nuclear families, single-parent families, large extended family groups, and chosen families whose most important relationships exist outside of traditional family structures.
Regardless of the family structure, the only thing that really matters is whether the participants are willing to invest in the wellness of their loved one.
Participating in our family support program does not mean that a family member has to be experiencing a mental health condition themselves, although some family members find out for the first time that they have needs worth addressing as well. Caring for or supporting someone with a severe mental health condition, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, or any number of other serious mental illnesses can take a great deal out of a person.[1] The family support program acknowledges that toll and responds to it directly.
What Families Learn and Experience
01
Understanding Mental Health Conditions
Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of having a loved one with a mental health condition is not fully comprehending what is happening with them. The symptoms associated with mental health conditions can be confusing, erratic, and easily misinterpreted as personal. Families typically come to Agape feeling scared, frustrated, sad, and angry, with very little idea what is taking place with their loved one mentally.
That is why our family program begins with education. We offer psychoeducational classes that provide family members with a better understanding of their loved one’s specific mental health condition, including:
- What type of mental health condition they are dealing with
- How the mental health condition presents
- How evidence-based treatments address the condition
- What recovery can reasonably look like for their loved one over time
Oftentimes, simply recognizing that much of your loved one’s behaviors are symptoms of their condition, as opposed to reflections of your relationship or their personality, is among the most comforting experiences a family can have.
Resources from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) inform the educational foundation of our family programming, ensuring that the information families receive is accurate, current, and grounded in established research.
02
Family Therapy
Psychoeducation is to educate families about mental health issues. Family therapy, however, addresses how they relate to each other. A family therapist or social worker guides a family through a series of structured and safe sessions in order to facilitate open and honest dialogue, often difficult conversations for the family due to fears of creating additional conflict in the midst of ongoing struggles with their loved one’s mental health.
Agape’s family therapy services help your family discover unhealthy communication patterns, address built-up resentment and misunderstandings, learn to establish healthy boundaries, and find a common language to discuss mental health issues without stigma, guilt, or fear. For many families, the benefits of family therapy may be some of the greatest benefits experienced during the course of treatment, not just for the identified patient, but for the family system as a whole.
03
Coping Skills for Caregivers
Many caregivers, whether it is a spouse managing a partner’s bipolar disorder, parents providing support for children with schizophrenia or severe mental illness, or siblings acting as primary sources of emotional support, experience high levels of stress, anxiety, and grief from supporting a loved one while receiving inadequate resources to manage their own experiences.
Our family program provides specific support for caregivers by focusing on their unique concerns, including learning effective strategies for managing the stress associated with being a caregiver, teaching them how to recognize early warning signs, and helping caregivers set realistic boundaries to maintain their own well-being and ensure the best possible outcome for the recovery of the person they are supporting.
Families are also taught that taking care of themselves is not selfish; it is necessary if they expect to continue showing up for their loved ones throughout the process.
04
Peer Support and Connection
One of the biggest advantages of family-based programs is the opportunity for families to connect with others who are experiencing similar challenges.
Isolation is common among families supporting a loved one with a mental health condition due to the reluctance to talk about it and the sense that no one else understands what you are going through. But this begins to fade significantly when families meet in a supportive group setting.
Support groups for family members offer an opportunity to share experiences, advocate for one another, and receive peer support that no amount of professional guidance can replace. By participating in these types of groups, families not only gain knowledge and skills to help their loved ones, but also feel less isolated in knowing they are not alone in what they are facing.
Why Family Involvement Improves Outcomes
There is overwhelming evidence that involving families in treatment for mental health conditions results in improved outcomes. Studies consistently show that individuals whose family members were educated about their diagnosis, involved in their treatment plan, and provided therapeutic support achieve better treatment outcomes, have fewer episodes of relapse, and have better long-term recovery outcomes than those whose family members did not participate.[2]
It makes logical sense why this would be true. Most of daily life occurs within a family context. An individual must have a supportive environment in which to apply the new skills and knowledge learned in treatment, one in which communication patterns reinforce positive behavior, where there are clearly established boundaries that everyone respects, and in which the people closest to them understand the recovery process so they can provide appropriate support rather than unintentionally interfere with their loved one’s recovery.
At Agape, we invest time and energy in working with families because we believe that investing in families means investing in recovery.
Supporting Families Beyond Treatment
Agape Behavioral Health’s efforts to provide families with mental health support do not stop once a patient completes their program. As part of the discharge process, Agape will guide families to additional continuing resources, including organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness that offer local family education programs and national peer-to-peer support groups, and crisis intervention services including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) helpline.
During the discharge and aftercare planning process, Agape also coordinates with patients’ families to ensure that the patient is returning to a supportive and prepared home environment. Transition periods have historically been some of the most challenging aspects of recovery.[3] But families who are active participants in the treatment process tend to fare better in navigating these times.
If your family has been impacted by a loved one’s mental illness —whether your loved one is currently undergoing treatment or you’re still trying to learn about your options — Agape Behavioral Health is here to support you too.
You don’t have to go through this alone.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Family Mental Health Support Program
Who can participate in Agape's family support program?
The family support program at Agape Behavioral Health welcomes all individuals who are connected to someone receiving treatment at Agape — including spouses, parents, siblings, adult children, extended family members, and chosen family. All family structures and relationships are welcomed, because we know that everyone defines their support system differently.
Do family members need to have their own mental health diagnosis to participate?
No. Regardless of whether your family member has a personal mental illness diagnosis, the family support program was developed specifically for loved ones and caregivers of patients in treatment. Many family members, however, often discover within the family support program that there are issues they themselves would benefit from working through, and we welcome discussions regarding other treatment options as well.
What if our family member does not want us involved in their treatment?
Family involvement in treatment typically requires written consent from the individual being treated. The clinicians at Agape will collaborate thoughtfully with both the individual and the family members regarding potential ways that each may be involved in the treatment process, while always keeping the individual’s therapeutic goals and comfort level as the primary focus.
Family involvement in treatment requires the consent of the individual in care. Our clinical team will work thoughtfully with both the individual and family members to explore the role that family participation can appropriately play, always prioritizing the individual’s therapeutic needs and comfort.
How does family therapy differ from regular therapy?
While regular therapy is focused primarily on one person’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences, family therapy examines the interactions and dynamics between the people in a family unit. This type of therapy is conducted under the supervision of a licensed clinician to assist families in enhancing communication, resolving conflicts, and developing an understanding of how to support each other during recovery. This is not intended to be a place where blame or labeling occurs, but a way for families to grow together.
What resources are available for families after treatment ends?
At Agape Behavioral Health, we provide families with referrals to continue their connection to community-based resources, including NAMI family education programs, the SAMHSA helpline, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, and peer support groups. During the post-discharge transition process, our staff is available to assist families as they prepare for their loved one to return home.
How do I find out more about the family support program?
You can begin by contacting Agape Behavioral Health’s admissions department. They can answer questions about the family support program, its components, what participating entails, and how to initiate participation, whether your loved one is in treatment at Agape or you are considering Agape as an option.
Sources
[1] National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.). Family members and caregivers. https://www.nami.org/your-journey/family-members-and-caregivers/
[2] Dixon, L., McFarlane, W. R., Lefley, H., Lucksted, A., Cohen, M., Falloon, I., Mueser, K., Miklowitz, D., Solomon, P., & Sondheimer, D. (2001). Evidence-based practices for services to families of people with psychiatric disabilities. Psychiatric Services, 52(7), psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.52.7.903
[3] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2019). Best practices in care transitions for individuals with suicide risk: Inpatient care to outpatient care. https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/suicide-risk-practices-in-care-transitions-11192019.pdf
