By Emalee Gillis, NAMI Spokane Blog Editor.
NAMI Spokane is open to suggestions from others on what services to provide in the area. That’s why when Finn, a local teenager, approached the NAMI Spokane Executive Director about forming a support group for teens, NAMI Spokane began searching for a way to meet that need.
NAMI Spokane has identified a facilitator with experience working with teens who is willing to take on a teen support group. The group will be free of cost and will be held the first Friday of every month in the NAMI Spokane office in downtown Spokane. Read on to learn more about why this group is important, what it will offer, and how to join.
According to Ashley Olivarez, Programs and Community Engagement Manager of NAMI Spokane, “We were open to forming a teen support group for those 14 to 18 years old because we noticed that all of our support groups were for adults and we were missing the teen demographic. We also knew that younger people have special challenges.”
She continued, “Being a teenager is a unique time of development in life. So many things are changing. The teenage brain and body are developing. Teens are coming into adulthood, but there are still childhood dynamics. Other parts of their lives are also changing, too. The relationships with parents, teacher and friends are all changing.”
Finn said he reached out to NAMI Spokane because he was having a bad day and could find nothing about teens and mania online. Finn was particularly interested in a support group that included teens who had experienced psychosis like he did.
“Before I had my first manic episode,” Finn said, “I had talked to so many people who had depression. I talked to people in school and in therapy. However, I can count on one hand the number of people I’ve met who had mania and bipolar disorder and none in my age group. I would love to be in a room with a teen who has experienced mania like I have.”
It has been hard to recruit teens for the support group if it was restricted to teens with mania, so NAMI Spokane has expanded the group to include teens living with any mental health condition. Finn is hopeful that there will be a subgroup of teens who participate who have experienced mania.
When asked why it has been hard to find teens who want to participate, Finn thought it was partially due to the stigma of having a mental health disorder. Finding support online is more anonymous than actually showing your face at a support group.
Ashley added that it can be scary to share out loud with what you are going through, but there are real benefits if someone can push through that fear.
According to Ashley, “It is important for teens to join a support group because even if they have great relationships with people around them, it is important to hear from others their age. It is a different dynamic if you hear someone in your own group sharing something that you have experienced. When you hear about someone else who has gone through the same things as yourself, you know you are not alone.”
Plans for the group are dynamic. It will start out as a simple support group but could add specific skills training or evolve in other ways if the members identify a need for it.
Teens who participate in the group will be required to show up with a guardian. The teens will be meeting in private with the facilitator behind and the guardians will be in a different area of the office during the group, able to see but not hear or participate in the teen session. Parents will be able to meet and interact with each other during this time.
NAMI Spokane is geared up and ready to offer this group and are waiting for teens to sign up. To register for the free teen support group that will be held the first Friday of the month from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the NAMI office at 152 S Jefferson Street, Suite 100, or for more information, click here or email Ashley. If you have ideas that might help shape the group or reasons you cannot attend/barriers to attendance, please also send these thoughts through email to Ashley to guide planning. First names will be used in session and confidentiality will be honored by the group.