Tag Archive for support

Idea for a Party

October 8, 2019 Comments Off on Idea for a Party

Here’s an idea: have an Immigrant Party and invite your immigrant friends.  Don’t have any?  Sure you do.  All of our kinfolk came from somewhere other than the U.S.  Ask your guests to come ready to share their family history—why they came to the U.S., where they landed, what type of community they lived in here, the support system they had (church? neighbors from the same part of the world?), languages spoken at home, hardships they encountered here, what they went through to gain citizenship.  Maybe each guest could bring pictures of people, places, and documents, as well as a family keepsake that reminds them of those times.  You might even want to ask people to bring food to share from one of the cultures each guest represents. 

Spend the evening sharing your food and your stories.  By the end of the night it will be very clear why you are all friends—because we’ve been given the oceans not as an obstacle to divide us but as a path to bring us together.

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Help Your Friend with Mental Health Issues

May 14, 2018 Comments Off on Help Your Friend with Mental Health Issues

During this month of May, which is Mental Health Awareness month, I think about people struggling with depression or who are bipolar or have other conditions–friends with mental illnesses they try to hide, and friends with a mental illness that is very apparent.  You probably do, too, since one in four people experience it within any given year.   Sometimes, dealing with them isn’t easy.  Because I care for them, I want to support them; I want to make their lives more livable.  But I’m not a professional, and I don’t want to do or say something that would be harmful to them.

I’d like to share with you a short yet helpful article.  I’ll give you its five recommendations here.  For an explanation of each, read “How to Help a Friend with Mental Illness.”

  1. Listen to what they are saying.
  2. Validate what they are saying.
  3. Ask what they need.
  4. Educate yourself about their experience.
  5. Keep being a friend.

I’m trying to apply these steps to my friends.  I hope others will apply them to me when I need them.

 

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Help a Friend with Mental Illness

May 2, 2017 Comments Off on Help a Friend with Mental Illness

I know people struggling with depression or who are bipolar or have other conditions–friends with mental illnesses they try to hide, and friends with a mental illness that is very apparent.  You probably do, too, since one in four people experience it within any given year.  Sometimes, dealing with them isn’t easy.  Because I care for them, I want to support them; I want to make their lives more livable.  But I’m not a professional, and I don’t want to do or say something that would be harmful to them.

An article I read recently gave me some answers.  “How to Help a Friend with Mental Illness” offers five simple recommendations: 1) Listen to what they are saying.  2) Validate what they are saying. 3) Ask what they need.  4) Educate yourself about their experience. 5) Keep being a friend. (See explanations at http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-to-help-a-friend-with-a-mental-illness.html.)

I’m trying to apply these steps to my friends.  I hope others will apply them to me when I need them.

 

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How to Help a Friend with Mental Illness

March 21, 2016 Comments Off on How to Help a Friend with Mental Illness

I know people struggling with depression or who are bipolar or have other conditions–friends with mental illnesses they try to hide, and friends with a mental illness that is very apparent.  You probably do, too, since one in four people experience it within any given year.   Sometimes, dealing with them isn’t easy.  Because I care for them, I want to support them; I want to make their lives more livable.  But I’m not a professional, and I don’t want to do or say something that would be harmful to them.

Recently I found a short yet helpful article I’d like to share with you.  I’ll give you the five recommendations here.  For an explanation of each, read “How to Help a Friend with Mental Illness.”

  1. Listen to what they are saying.
  2. Validate what they are saying.
  3. Ask what they need.
  4. Educate yourself about their experience.
  5. Keep being a friend.

I’m trying to apply these steps to my friends.  I hope others will apply them to me when I need them.

 

 

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Children in Adult Prisons

July 6, 2015 Comments Off on Children in Adult Prisons

Kids in adult prisons?  Yes, in 2013 there were 6,000+ in the U.S.  These kids have few appropriate services or support as they experience sexual assault, beatings, and psychological torture.  They are more likely to try suicide than kids detained in non-adult prisons, and once they get out are 77% more likely to commit crimes.  This does NOT sound like a way to rehabilitate them–and they’re at the age when they are very able to change.  Nor is it a way to get them ready for a productive adult life on the outside.

Read more at the Credo website.  While you’re there, sign their petition to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which simply reads, “The Department of Justice must immediately launch an investigation into the practice of trying and jailing children as adults.”

 

 

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