Loading ...OUT OF THE SHADOWS AT LAST
Transforming Mental Health, Mental Illness and Addiction Services in Canada
The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology
The Honourable Michael J. L. Kirby, Chair
The Honourable Wilbert Joseph Keon, Deputy Chair
May 2006
Family Care-givers
Of the many submissions received by the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, a great number came from family members who provide unpaid, non-professional care to those living with mental illness and addiction. These family members often provide most of the care and support to people living with mental illness.
Families spoke to the Committee of … the effects that caring for a mentally ill individual have on families; and with securing what they need in order to provide the best possible care for their loved ones. Committee members were struck not only by the impact that mental illness can have on the life and health of caregivers, but also by the fact that the enormous efforts of caregivers often go unrecognized and unappreciated by professionals and others in the mental health system.
Family members who provide care and support to relatives living with mental illness and addiction face a two-fold challenge. First, they must suffer with their loved ones through their daily hardships and use their limited personal resources to try to alleviate them. Second, they must contend with a mental health system that often excludes them from involvement in the information-gathering and decision-making processes while simultaneously leaving them to serve as the fail-safe mechanism to provide unlimited, unpaid care, filling in the cracks that open when any part of the so-called system fails.
Here is what some of the family members said to the Committee.
- Experience with Mental Health and Addiction
- Impact on Families
- What are the Family Care-givers Asking for
