THE WAY IT COULD BE – Age six

When Dad’s strange behaviour started to affect us all, Mom got him to go with her to the
family health centre where they met with a counsellor. She arranged for Dad to be seen by a
doctor who told them that he was suffering from a mental illness; he arranged for Dad to be
seen by a psychiatrist, a specialist from a city hospital about 30 miles away who came to our
town from time to time to help family doctors provide their patients with the most effective
on-going care and treatment. The counsellor sat down with Mom and me, explained the
nature of Dad’s illness and helped us understand what was wrong with him and what he was
going through. She gave Mom some information to read and arranged for her to join a
training and support group made up of the family members of people affected by the same
kind of mental illness that Dad had. As we learned more about the disease and its effects,
both Mom and I became much more comfortable talking about Dad’s illness with our
neighbours and others, including my classmates and friends. We were able to cope much
better with his periods of erratic behaviour that, even with his medication and treatment, still
affected him from time to time.