The BC Schizophrenia Society (on behalf of BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information) is pleased to facilitate a series of online support groups for family members and supporters of persons with a mental illness.

These support groups are for people caring for a loved one who has or may have a mental illness or mental health.

These groups welcome relatives and supporters including:

• Parents of children or adults
• Sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, daughters, sons, grandparents, in-laws….
• Wives, husbands, spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends and same-sex partners
• Chosen family, friends and roommates

The online groups are anonymous, private and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To link to this page, use: www.support.bcss.org

To go directly to the support groups, click here

To go directly to the registration page, click on this link

Scroll down for more information below.

To go directly to the groups page, click here (NOTE: you will need to register (click on the register link) to view or post in the family support forums. You will need to provide your email address to register but no-one other than our moderators will be able to see it. )

Group Descriptions

Most groups are private, which means that you need to register and log in before you can read what is there or introduce yourself. Fortunately, this is easy. Just click on the ‘register’ link at top and follow the directions. If you get stuck at any point you can email the moderator. If a group is ‘public’, meaning you can read the information there without logging in, it will say ‘public’ in the title. Once you log in, you can post a topic or question by clicking on the ‘new topic’ button, or reply to a post by clicking on the post you are interested in, and then clicking the ‘reply’ button. Your confidentiality is protected in several ways, firstly no-one but the moderator can see your email address, secondly, you don’t need to use your real name if you don’t want to. More on confidentiality below.

1) Family Support Group - (there are two groups, a public one and a private one) These groups are for a family member, spouse, parent, sibling or friend of a person with a mental illness. It is a private online place to discuss ideas and experiences, to ask questions and to share resources and information with one another. You are welcome to use your real name or a pseudonym/nicname when you register to this group, and only those people registered with the forum will be able to see what is written on the list or post responses.

2) LGBT Family Support Group - This group is for persons who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, and who also are caring for a loved one or family member with a mental illness. It is a private online place to discuss ideas and experiences, to ask questions and to share resources and information with one another. You are welcome to use your real name or a pseudonym/nicname when you register to this group, and only those people registered with the forum will be able to see what is written on the list or post responses. This group is moderated by program coordinator Sophia Kelly.

3) Adult Children Support Group - private group for people whose parents have a mental illness

4) Siblings Support Group - private group for people whose sister or brother has a mental illness.

How To Get Involved / Confidentiality

In order to preserve the privacy of the groups (and to prevent spam) you will need to register to participate in any of these groups. To register, click on this link. (Make sure you answer the question in the first part of the registration screen, that helps verify you’re a person and not a spam robot.) You will need to provide your email address when registering, but no-one other than the moderators will be able to see it. You can view the descriptions of the various groups by clicking here.

Once you’ve registered for the group you will be able to log in and join the support group that suits you best. If you need help getting registered please email the moderator for help.

Note to group members and researchers: The posts in the support forums are private, belong to their authors and need to be respected as confidential. No permission is granted for any use of the support forums or the information within for anything other than personal support. Research enquiries or other announcements are not welcome and will be deleted from the support forums. Announcements may be posted in the Information area of the site.

Volunteers: The groups are new and the conversation is just starting up, so we invite you to introduce yourself and start a conversation on the groups to help get things going. We’re also looking for volunteers willing to be ‘greeters’ on the list - this low-commitment volunteer position would be to make a point of logging into the list once a week and posting or replying to posts to help stimulate discussion and welcome new members. Please email the moderator if you are interested in helping out in this way.

This project is funded by BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information www.heretohelp.bc.ca