Home > Patient & Family Forum

 

Participate in a free online forum and join discussions about serious mental illness with people who have experienced these conditions and their family members

 

Colorado Recovery, in conjunction with the Recovery Trust, has set up a moderated online forum so that our clients and their family members can join discussions with others who are in the same situation.

The forum offers a secure online support group and a large online library of information about serious mental illness and its management.

Support group

 

The secure online support group is accessible only to active clients of Colorado Recovery and their close family members. If you are an active client of Colorado Recovery or a family member of a client you can apply to be enrolled by contacting forum@coloradorecovery.com. You will be given a password and you may select a username—anonymous if you wish.

The online support group will provide support and education for participants who will have the opportunity to discuss issues with one another online with guidance from trained moderators.

You can join the support group at any time of the day that you're free and contribute to any topic of discussion that interests you. The moderators include mental health professionals, family members with experience of offering support and education to other families and someone who has experienced psychosis herself.

Moderators will ask new participants to introduce themselves, will participate in the discussions, and will direct forum users to relevant items in a large online library of information about serious mental illness and its management.

The forum support group is not intended to be a direct treatment resource, but a supplemental source of information and support. If you have questions about treatment you should raise these directly with the Colorado Recovery therapist or psychiatrist.

To enroll in the forum, we request that you watch a training video about the use of the forum at www.coloradorecovery.com/videos.html. We also recommend that you view an informational video at the same location entitled "Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: Richard Warner, M.D. and Julia Maximon, M.D. talk to Denver National Alliance on Mental Illness," to learn more about these two illnesses and their management. Then, write to us at forum@coloradorecovery.com and one of our forum administrators will send you a copy of the participant agreement to read. We will ask you to confirm that you have (a) viewed the training videos and (b) read the agreement. Reply to the forum administrator and let us know what you would like your username to be. You may choose one that allows you to be anonymous. We will enroll you with a temporary password that you may change to one that is more personal.

Learn more about how people manage serious mental illness

 

Library of information

 

Attached to the forum is a huge library of information about serious mental illness, its management, the sorts of difficulties that people with these illnesses encounter and ways to solve some of the associated problems. The content of the library changes as we add new information. This library is accessible to anyone who is interested, and is not limited to clients of Colorado Recovery or family members. Click here to access the library.

Here are some of the topics you will find covered:

· What is schizophrenia?

· Understanding bipolar

· Schizophrenia explained

· How are schizophrenia and bipolar treated?

· How to keep from getting sick again

· How to deal with everyday problems

· Help for families

· How families can help

· Managing life at home

· How is bipolar treated?

· What are the side effects of medication?

· Treating mental illness and substance abuse