EDITOR’S CORNER
T oday I have a question for you all — and a new list. It features support groups both online and in-person, both family-oriented and general, designed to help people connect, learn, share stories, take heart, and navigate their challenges with hope. All of which the Mad in the Family page was designed for.
You’ll also find it in the box down below connecting to sign-up details for Mad in America’s own support groups (one for parents in Europe, one for parents in the US and Canada). Just below the link for MIA groups, now, is an additional, permanent link leading to the new page of support-group listings.
To be clear: This collection of info by no means complete! It’s only a start. I simply pulled together the details I had on hand, including information that was emailed to me recently regarding groups in California’s Bay Area. That inspired me. I thought: Why not create a list? My hope is it will expand in the coming weeks and months, as I round up more details on other groups — for families and people generally — that meet physically or virtually around the globe and adhere to a different mindset, more humane and compassionate, than the usual, pharma-driven, drug-based approach.
My hope, too, is that you’ll think of me as point-woman — on this topic and others — for gathering helpful information and spreading the word.
Which leads me to my question for you: Do you have info I should share? Which other support groups fit the bill and belong on this list? If you have something in mind, please, zap it my way at [email protected]. 
And please, tell people you know. Post the list, tweet it, get it out there, ask folks if they have anything to add. I want this list — and the family page overall — to be as supportive, accessible, comprehensive, and inclusive as it can be. As the naturalist John Muir once observed: “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
We are attached to each other. We’re a community, after all.
-Amy Biancolli, Family Editor
