From Grief To Action

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Support for you as a parent

• Books to note
  

  Releases since 2009, with Amazon reviews or other online background.

• Candice Plattor's survival tips for family members
  

• Co-Dependents Anonymous
  

  The purpose of each CoDA group around BC is "to help each other form better relationships." Meeting dates and locations are subject to change. Please consult the meeting list at www.cdrs.ca.

• Disability pension options
  

  If your child's addiction disorder is concurrent with a chronic mental disorder, or if the addiction disorder seems likely to prevent him or her from becoming financially self-sufficient, he or she may be eligible for a disability pension. At this Web address, the BC Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, with the skilled assistance of the Legal Assistance Society, offers Help Sheets that help you work through the red tape of the pension application process. 

• Families, Drugs and Alcohol
  

  This 21-year-old organization, based in London, publishes information of value to families and professionals in the UK.

• Grief Club
  

  FGTA member Tabitha recommends this site with these words:

  "Melody hopes through her website to offer a safe and compassionate place for people experiencing grief and loss, on various levels, to gain support and sharing. Membership in the club is free. No strings attached."

• HBO's "Reducing the Risks"
  

  Click the U.S. flag for "HBO.com" at the entry page to arrive at an excellent article by a researcher featured in HBO's program about addiction. You can also view a clip from the DVD.

  Ask at your local library if the DVD is available there for lending.

• Has addiction stigma got you down?
  

  The Three Things campaign has a viewpoint sympathetic to the families of those who struggle with any of the common substance misuse issues evident in BC communities. It recognizes how unique each disorder is. "Addiction is a complex issue," begins the website home page. "It doesn't always fit a certain mould or follow a particular path."  

  Take a look around the website, and download the posters if you know how to put them up where they will get respectful attention. Whether the posters interest you or not, you might take heart from the compassion that this campaign promotes with its straightforward explanations and practical calls to action.

  The "three things" are messages framed for combatting the stigma that keeps people from asking for help:

  • Addiction is not a choice. People may choose to use alcohol or drugs, but nobody chooses to become addicted.
  • Stereotypes about addiction are misguided. People with addictions are not always whom you'd picture. Addiction can happen to people from all walks of life.
  • People with addictions are not a lost cause. They are human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect - and your support can make a difference!

• Here to Help - BC Partners
  

  From the website: "We are a group of seven leading provincial mental health and addictions nonprofit agencies working together as the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information. Since 2003, we've been combining our efforts to help individuals and families better manage mental health and substance use problems."

  Among this site's most popular resources are the Family Toolkit's 5 modules.  The Family Toolkit is designed to assist families in caring for a family member with a mental illness/addiction by providing information and practical resources. By educating yourself as much as you can about the mental or substance use disorder, you can take an active role in your family member's recovery.

• Learn 2 Cope Forum
  

  Read stories similar to your own in the online forum at Learn2Cope. It grows every day with postings from parents, family members and their loved ones who are recovering from drug addictions. The forum administrators are on the job 24/7, so you can register to read forum notices and discussions at any time.

  Based in Massachusetts, the site is a clear window into a region similar to southern British Columbia for the size of its black market in drugs--and the callousness with which its merchants exploit young people. For advocacy-focused parents in BC, there's also food for thought parents in the organization's history and the policy issues it confronts in health care and jurisprudence. 

• Parents Forever
  

  Here it is, all in one place--information about the professionally facilitated Vancouver support group for parents, siblings and friends affected by the addiction of a loved one.

• Resources in the Yukon
  

  It can be helpful to see how another province interprets its mandate to protect health and to prevent and treat addiction. Read about the programs offered in the Yukon to support families struggling with the effects of alcohol and drug addiction.

• Reduce gang involvement risk with advice from Abbotsford police
  

  In 2009, Abbotsford's police department launched Operation Lodestar, a program of videos and presentation for parents that they had developed with the help of experts in gang violence prevention. Featured in the introductory video are mothers who had brought up happy, active boys only to lose them because of drugs, addiction and armed gang vengeance or betrayal.

• Science and Management of Addictions
  

  Nora Volkow, MD is Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the US. She speaks from deep knowledge about the seriousness of teen addiction, the brain science that explains its distinct nature, and the importance of early treatment. In five short video and audio segments offered on this website, Dr. Volkow provides the medical facts about teen addiction and offers straightforward advice to parents about strengthening their child's chances of navigating the teen years free of addiction.

  Science and Management of Addiction Foundation is a privately funded non-profit organization based in Seattle, Washington. Its goals is improving the management as well as the science of substance addiction. From the website:

  "Realizing the gap in services for adolescents, our primary goals are to improve early detection and treatment of substance addictions, and to expand resources for the families of drug addicted teens. Through helping and empowering parents to recognize substance abuse early and assist in its treatment as soon as it is recognized, we hope to help teenagers avoid the disabling physical, emotional, and behavioral effects of substance addiction." The foundation's advocacy video echoes the experience of parents and of young addicts on this side of the border. Addiction experts, research advocates, parents and youths in recovery underline that teen addiction is a problem of North American society as a whole--one whose human costs and economic damage are impossible to exaggerate. 

• Social support
  

  Advice from Nichole Fairbrother, PhD, on the site of Here to Help.

  What is Social Support?

  Social support is the physical and emotional comfort given to us by our family, friends, co-workers and others. It's knowing that we are part of a community of people who love and care for us, and value and think well of us. 

  CLICK FOR MORE 

   

• United Way Resource Listings for the Kamloops area
  

  A comprehensive list for families in this Thompson-Okanagan hub city.

• Visions quarterly e-zine
  

  Visions is a nationally award-winning journal which provides a forum where many perspectives on mental health and addictions issues can be heard. The journal is written by and for people who have used mental health or addictions services, mental health service providers, family and friends, and mental health and addictions leaders and decision-makers. Visions always tries to ask: "What does it look like in real life?" and "Why should this matter to me?"
  You can subscrobe tp the free online 'zine delivery service on the home page of Here to Help.

  Feature issue; eVisions-Cannabis Vol. 5 | No. 4 | 2009

• Why Join A Support Group?
  

  Among the other excellent resources available on BC's Here to Help website is this module about social support--what it is and why everyone needs it, but especially individuals dealing with an addiction or mental illness in the family.

• Opiate overdoses needn't be fatal -- how to be prepared
  

  Naloxone is a medication that reverses the effects of an overdose from opioids (e.g. heroin, methadone, morphine). BC has developed a Take Home Naloxone (THN) Program to help save lives. This site will help you learn more about THN programs and how the BC THN program can be part of your community .

• Why do we try treating addiction as if nothing has been learned since 1950?
  

  One of two articles by veteran Times contributor Jane Brody about effective addiction treatment.

• Families edition of Visions Journal
  

  A director of FGTA, Nichola Malim Hall, guest-edited Volume 8, Number 3 of Visions Journal from the Here to Help coalition. Among the article authors is Frances Kenny, who created and has facilitated the Parents Forever support group for families affected by addiction. Sample the contents of this excellent journal at the link below. The archive copies are worth browsing as well.

• Video on Mental Health Law
  

  The BC Schizophrenia Society has worked with a legal expert to produce this one-hour video.