Family caregivers

Serious mental illness brings a level of distress and complexity that can be incredibly hard to navigate.

Family support makes a real measurable difference in recovery, and so that's a big part of why we created the NAMI Family Caregiver Helpline, to make sure that the people who are supporting a loved one through serious mental illness have somewhere to turn.

It's so easy to feel that you're completely alone when you care for someone with a serious mental illness.

That is why the NAMI Family Caregiver Helpline exists, and our guest today will tell us all about it.

Caregiver-led support, tools, strategy, guidance, and connection are out there.

It's all a phone call or a text or an email away.

And in that light, in a few minutes, Mindi Greiling and Mimi Feldman and I, Randi Kaye, are going to bring in Megan Rochford, who is another mom of somebody with serious mental illness, but also the executive director of the national NAMI Helpline for caregivers.

So it's, uh, maybe just the NAMI Helpline in general.

She currently holds the title, this is very exciting, of Mrs. Minnesota.

Maren is a caregiver for her mother, and her pageant platform is Family Caregiving.

She recently competed in the Mrs. America pageant, but this interview was actually recorded.

We're recording this before the pageant, so you're going to have to check the show notes to see if she won.