Navigating Mental Illness: Parents Stories

For parents, understanding your child with a mental illness is complex and often painful. For Danielle Aubin, parenting is learning how to let go. She has let go of old notions of "good parenting" and created an environment free of shame and natural consequences.  In this episode, Danielle shares practical parenting tips that can change your relationship with your child as well as your relationship with yourself.  Contact Danielle: presenceperinatal.com

Irene Barton grew up in a small town in South Carolina mill town where she learned about community and faith. Irene brings that community building and faith to Cobb Collaborative helps families in Cobb County, Georgia to connect with resources they need including mental health training events as well as a podcast (link below). https://www.cobbcollaborative.org/category/news/podcast https://www.cobbcollaborative.org/

Kirsten Book is back and she brings her passion for helping young people with eating disorders and their families. Her background makes her uniquely qualified to speak on this topic. Kirsten has had her own challenges with body image and eating disorders.  By listening to this episode you will learn what to consider as a parent, how to take care of yourself, the importance of spirituality and more.

Kirsten Book, the psychiatric nurse practitioner, is back with some rules on how to share information with your child's caregivers and how caregivers decide what they can share. Turns out the rules are different in each state for different situations. Kirsten also talks about the process of skill development in your child's life and how sometiomes parents undermine that process! Not easy, but important!  

911 dispatcher Samantha Hawkins from Cobb County shares practical tips on handling mental health crisis calls, training new recruits, and emphasizing empathy. The podcast explores the comprehensive training process for emergency call takers and the specialized CARES unit's approach to mental health distress calls.

Parenting a child with a mental illness can be tough, but Catherine has found peace in the good times and learned how to survive the springtime pychosis that is a part of her son's life. After 4 years of her son's mental illness, she has learned who to share her struggles with, how to maintain a relationship with her son and husband and what joy feels like again.  We hope you will be inspired by Catherine's story, we certainly were.

Linda and her husband adopted 2 siblings who had mental health illness almost from the start. After 20 years of navigating the mental health and legal systems in Pennsylvania, she has learned a whole bunch. From therapy to meds to trusts, Linda has many tips that will help you and your family. 

Kirsten Book treats the whole patient. As a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, she  develops a relationship with her patients first, work with them through the inevitable medication changes and comes up with ways to create a team to best serve their needs. She also suggests parents get therapy and allowing children/young adults to experience the consequences of their actions. Laura and Bill enjoyed the practical tips and the wholistic approach. You will too...

Kim Frye gets involved in parent's lives at their lowest point. Maybe you had to call the police when things are getting out of hand at home, and then your son or daughter is charged and on the way to jail, not the hospital. Now you are in crisis and your child is sleeping in a jail without medical care. You need a lawyer and Kim knows how to navigate the complicated system. In this episode, Kim gives practical things to consider when supporting and setting boundaries for your child. Not suprisongly, parents are usually an intergral part of the plan to get your son or daughter back on track and out of the legal trouble.  

Part 2 of Natalie's story picks up with her bringing up her son. When he was young, he had temper tantrums which turned into withdraing as he grew. Natalie found a church and worked on herself. As her son grew, he excelled in school and seemingly doing well in other areas. He was liked and things seemed to be easy for him. After some delusions, Natalie admitted her son to the hospital and has not reached stability. After some inapprioriate comments at home to his younger siblings, Natalie had her son find somewhere else to live. Bill gets an update on Natalie's son and shares it at the end...