NAMI Family-to-Family

NAMI Family-to-Family is a free, 8-session education program for family, friends and significant others of adults with mental health conditions. NAMI Family-to-Family provides information about anxiety, depressive disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions. Other topics covered include communication, problem solving, treatment and recovery.

Our Fall 2024 Family to Family Class will run Wednesday evenings from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm from September 25th through November 13th. If you are able to attend, please be sure to register. If you can not please join our waitlist.

The course is designed to increase understanding and advocacy skills while helping participants maintain their own well-being. The program is taught by trained family members who have a loved one with a mental health condition and includes presentations, discussions and interactive exercises. NAMI Family-to-Family is an evidence-based program. This means that research shows that the program significantly improves the coping and problem-solving abilities of the people closest to a person with a mental health condition. For information on the research base for the program, visit nami.org/research.

  • NAMI Finger Lakes offers NAMI Family-to-Family classes free of charge to participants.

  • Meetings are held online via Zoom.  Space is limited to provide the best class experience in an online environment. 

  • For more information or to register for the next upcoming course, please leave a message at 607-288-2460, or email support@namifingerlakes.org.

What You’ll Gain

NAMI Family-to-Family not only provides information and strategies for taking care of the person you love, but you’ll also find out that you’re not alone. Recovery is a journey, and there is hope.

The group setting of NAMI Family-to-Family provides mutual support and shared positive impact—experience compassion and reinforcement from people who understand your situation. Sharing your own experience may help others in your class. In the program, you’ll learn about:

  • How to solve problems and communicate effectively

  • Taking care of yourself and managing your stress

  • Supporting your loved one with compassion

  • Finding and using local supports and services

  • Up-to-date information on mental health conditions and how they affect the brain

  • How to handle a crisis

  • Current treatments and therapies

  • The impact of mental health conditions on the entire family

What People Are Saying

“The course gave me hope that it will be okay, that I am not alone and reduced a lot of shame, guilt and hopelessness.”

“Before I took the course, I felt alone and overwhelmed dealing with my daughter’s mental illness. By taking this course, I have met others who are going through the same things I am and have learned about many resources that I never knew existed.”

“I thought my wife and I knew just about everything there is to know about the system and the illness. Boy, were we wrong. Without a doubt, this is the best support course I have had the privilege of taking part in, bar none.”

“I wish I’d known about this seven years ago when the problem began. I felt safe in this class. I was able to talk about things I haven’t been comfortable expressing elsewhere.”

“This course overall was the single most, without a doubt, helpful and informative thing ever offered in all my years searching for answers…it has helped me to understand better and communicate more effectively with my brother.”

“The course has helped me to realize that my son is still inside the body that is often hidden by the mental illness and that I am not alone in this.”