In Honour of…

The Family Guide to Mental Health Recovery is dedicated to family members everywhere who choose to stick with their loved ones. Those who choose to unconditionally accept, unconditionally support and keep going – even when there is stress, fear, fatigue and frustration.  This project honours family members who find a way to hold on and seek a way back to recovery for their loved one, for their family and for themselves.

The PROJECT is dedicated to, and in honour of my mother, Helen Clarfield, and my father Gordon Clarfield. They experienced family mental health conditions in multiple generations – as children dealing with illness in a parent, as spouses and then as parents themselves. Their lives were much MORE than just experiencing mental illness in their families, but for years across three generations – that experience greatly influenced their lives.

They made it through.  I don’t know where their strength, stamina, their faith and dogged determination came from, but they had it.  They used these strengths to bring up four kids and keep their marriage through 40 years.

Today is the 20th anniversary of my mother’s passing – Nov. 13, 2013. To honour her life and all that she believed in, this is an attempt to pass on some of our experiences and learning to other families, like ours.  To help make their journey easier – as our journey would have been lightened through a helping hand of another family who understood.  So this project is in honour of my parents.

The project is also in honour of their parents, Yankel & Dvora Clarfield, and Sam & Molly Rosen, who endured as family members too. We take this opportunity to recognize a project advisor Dr. Robert Hicks, a devoted psychiatrist for decades, who passed away before the project was completed.

WHO DO YOU WANT TO HONOUR?

A family member?  A loved one, a person who cared for you or your family?

Here is a FORUM – “IN HONOUR OF….” where you too can remember and honour those that mattered, those that made a difference to you – or those you want to recognize and share with the world.

Stuart Clarfield
Producer/Director
The Family Guide to Mental Health Recovery