Well Coursera, that was families, caregiving and mental illness.
I hope you feel like that did justice to the experiences of families and the
experiences of everybody within those families.
It's been my privilege to work with many, many families over the years who are
dealing with mental illness. I really think that's why I have this,
rather optimistic outlook, that what families essentially do, is promote each
others mental health, because what I've seen is a lot of families pull together,
and see each other through times that were incredibly difficult.
So fundamentally, I believe families are a good thing, and that they are a really
great thing and a great resource for people who are dealing with mental
illness. The other thing is though, I do want to
mention that I know that not every fa-, family can do that.
And certainly part of what I've seen over the years as well, is that when I'm
talking about families and what they do for each other, I'm not always talking
about people who are related by blood or related by marriage.
There are many people who have people close to them that function like a family
for them and, unfortunately, we don't always recognize those people because
we're so stuck in that idea of what a family is.
But, many of us are connected to people and care about them and care for them when
they need it, and this is something that we're only going to have to learn to
understand and deal with more as the entire population ages.
And as we recognize that, you know, illness and disability, both physical and
men-, mental illness and disability are becoming more and more a part of
everybody's lives. I almost know no, I don't think I know
anybody who isn't dealing with some kind of a caregiving issue in their family.
And, that's why it's so important for us to think about, how to support people in
that role, and how to prepare ourselves for it, because I think we all will have
time when we are going to be caregivers or care receivers.
So with that, I am going to, leave you to do whatever mental health promoting thing
you plan to do this week. And I will see you at the final week of
the social context of mental health and illness, soon.
Bye.