Local Support Groups

Do you have a local support group?

What is it like?

I live in a small rural area and as far as I can tell there isn't much here for support groups. I would like to see one get started and I'm just curious about what they're like.

I used to attend a peer support group in my former city. I must say I went through a bit of withdrawal after I moved. Check into the closest community, they may accept participants from out of town.

Starting one up:

1. You need to decide between peer led and professional led. The advantage to peer is participants feel freer to say what is on their mind without fear of judgement.
2. You need to decide where to hold the meetings and how they will be paid for. My old group was able to meet in a church where we had secured a meeting room for the small fee of $100 a year. As part of the agreement, our group was responsible for mopping the floor and tidying the kitchen each week. As a result we charged no fee to meeting goers. As for coffee and tea supplies we simply asked for donations.
3. Group policies, and meeting procedures. Decide upon these early on and make sure they are in writing. Things to consider are who would be welcome? For instance, my group encouraged newcomers to bring a support person to their first meeting.

What was my group like?

We opened the doors a half hour early for an opportunity to socialize. This is really important as for many, getting out to support group is the only time they may get out at all. Remember, self-isolation is a big component of mental health disorders.

We did a quick run down around the circle "I'm so-in-so, I am bipolar, my week was okay."

Then we broke into smaller groups to share more indepthly.

Generally doors opened at 6:30pm, meeting started at 7:00, all wrapped up at 8:45 and we did the cleaning we had to do and were out the door before 9:00

*note, some facilities may require the group have insurance. This doesn't cost much.

I used to go to support groups but not anymore.

Last week I was referred to an autism resource center affiliated with a local hospital but I said no.