Being Community: Walking Beside Persons With Mental Illness

Do you care? Of course you do! But sometimes our care can miss the mark when our understanding is lacking. In this webinar we will look at how to take first steps in walking beside someone with mental illness. Various forms of mental illness will be introduced such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bi-polar disorder, and suggestions will be given for what people in the pew can do to respond in love. Responding to threats of suicide and setting boundaries also will touched on.

Our presenter: Elly VanAlten is a retired registered nurse. She spent the last 23 1/2 years of her nursing career working mostly as a staff educator in a long-term care facility that specialized in caring for persons with psychogeriatric illnesses. She’s also journeyed with her daughter and close friends in their struggles with mental illnesses. She’s passionate about educating people on mental illness and aging and how we can help these folks to have the best quality of life they can have within the limitations of their disabilities. Elly is a member of Trinity CRC in Edmonton, AB.