New video series from The Family Caregiving Project provides insight on how families navigate mental illness

The Family Caregiving Project, led by FIFSW Professor Charmaine Williams, has launched a series of videos to introduce its work, which explores the experiences of families that manage mental illness in their daily lives.

The project explores how families navigate the experiences that are associated with mental illness being part of family life. It looks at how individuals and their families cope with the challenges that mental illness can present. One of the goals of the videos is to share messages of hope with families and help viewers think about how they can be better allies and supports to families in their communities affected by mental illness. The Family Caregiving Project will be sharing research results and resources for service providers and community members in upcoming months.

“My hope is that families, people who are living with mental illness, friends and neighbours, policy makers, health professionals, and people in all parts of our community have the opportunity to look at these materials and learn about this experience, so that they can find ways to navigate mental illness more easily themselves and support the people around them more effectively,” says Williams.

The project’s researchers also hope that the videos be used in classrooms where students are learning to work with people affected by mental illness.

Clip 1: Overview of the project

Watch all 9 clips in the series on The Family Caregiving Project’s YouTube page.

May 3 – 9 2021 is Mental Health Week. Learn more via the Canadian Mental Health Association.