. Hi everybody, and welcome back to week 5 of the social context of mental health and illness. Week 5 can you believe we're almost done. So, this week we're going to be doing families, caregiving, and mental illness. And as I alluded to last week, there's been a long and sort of complex history with families in the mental healthcare system. We've always been very interested in families and what's going on inside them, that hasn't always been so great for families, but hopefully things are getting better. So what we're going to be doing in this lecture, is starting off by talking about how families are involved in mental health, and then talking about how families are affected, by mental illness. Hopefully with some ideas at the end, about how we can support families, to better promote mental health and better cope with mental illness. So this week, I've actually decided that I'd like to try to make things a little lighter for you, because I know that you have been working very, very hard in this course. I, I, I know that every week, there's a lot of viewing to do, there's reading to do, there's discussions, there's homework, all that stuff, and you guys have really been troopers. You've been working really hard, and, hopefully, that has been a little easier, because I've been quite deliberate in trying to make sure that the information, overlaps in the sense that things that you hear in one week come up again in following weeks. But at the same time, I know it's a lot of work. And so as we are looking towards the end here, I thought it would be nice to have a week that gives you a chance to take a, little bit of a, you know, breath. Catch your breath before you move on to the final assignment in the final week. So this week should be a little shorter in terms of the videos that you have to watch, and, and I think also the reading's, the reading's a bit lighter. But I am also hoping that you will take that left over energy [laugh] and use it in a very specific way. So, one thing is, with the discussion forums, you guys are great in the discussion forums. As, as I've said before, I enjoy dropping in and seeing what's going on and you've been terrific about coming up with topics to discuss, and, I imagine that this week will be no different in that regard. But I am going to put one suggested discussion forum topic in there, that I'm hoping you'll take the time to, to contribute to. So, one of the things that you're going to be seeing through this lecture, is excerpts from a, an ongoing documentary media project, called The Family Guide to Mental Health Recovery. This is a documentary media project that is unfolding in Toronto right now. And the, producer for this project, Stewart Clarifield, has very generously allowed me to link excerpts from his documentary, to the lecture. So you're going to be seeing, some excerpts from that documentary project, as we move through the topics. And I would be very grateful, if you would take advantage of that opportunity to give Mr. Clairfield and Mission Media, some feedback on what you see. So, I am going to give you the information about the website, so you can go over there and check out what's going on; you can see what the project's about, you'll see even more video excerpts there, I, I'm only using a few for the course. But also, you'll be seeing these clips, as we move through the material and, I'm going to create a form specifically for you to post any comments, thoughts, reactions, ideas that come to you from either looking at the website or looking at the video clips and I'd love to be able to, to share that with the Mission Media project. Because this is, what they're trying to do, is very much an interactive process, they really want it to be something that's going to be useful to the public generally, and family specifically. So the feedback that you provide, I think would be very helpful for them. And I'd, I'd love to take advantage of the fact that we have this huge audience from all over the world, people who are interested in mental health, many of whom, have experiences that include being family members of people who are diagnosed with mental illnesses. So, I think it's the perfect audience to give him some feedback and, you know, maybe a little encouragement. Why not? [laugh] So thank you very much, I, I'm going to thank you in advance for stopping over at the discussion forum and leaving some feedback there. And then otherwise, I'm going to encourage you to do something for your mental health this week. Here in Canada, it was actually, Family Day on Monday and this is a holiday that has been put in place so that people can have [laugh] a legitimate day off work, and hopefully spend some time with their families. So I encourage you, to do something for your mental health this week, which might include spending time with your family, it might include spending time with other people or doing something for yourself. And, and like I said, give yourself a bit of a breather, before we move into the final stretch here. So with that, let's move on to families, care-giving and mental illness.
